It's crazy how much money it takes to run for a political office
in this country. Today in a CNN.com article it is reported:
"The cost to try to influence the 2008 election could exceed
$3 billion, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign
Media Analysis Group, CNN's consultant on political television
advertising."
Just to be clear this number includes other political campaigns
and not just those running for president. It also includes interest
groups. Also, it's probably higher than usual on the presidential
campaigning side because they started early and there's a stage
full of candidates this year. However, it's still a whole lot of money!
I thought the digital age made making media much cheaper and
more accessible. Then why is it still so expensive for a politician
to disseminate their message to the American people? And did they
also not get the memo that with digital video recorders you can
skip through the commercials so its probably not the most effective
way to advertise any longer.
And guess who's leading the way in TV ad spending? You guessed it,
Mitt Romney. Here is a quote from the CNN piece:
"Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads all candidates in TV
spending, having aired his commercials more than 11,000 times this year
at a cost of nearly $8.6 million."
I feel this is a waste of money. These ads are annoying because of the
repetitive nature. The most irritating are the smear ads. They only
seek to viciously attack the opposition with no helpful information and
only bring more negativity and cynicism to the election process.
Please politicians save money and spare the American from having
to see you say the same thing over and over again. If people want to
hear what you have to say they can watch one of the hundreds debates
being put on (I know I'm exaggerating) or visit your campaign Web site
and watch videos of you doing photo ops there. Also, please leave the
funny ads to beer and car companies.
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