Yesterday Sen. John McCain boosted his TV advertising units in seven key swing states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, closing the gap between his advertising and Sen. Barack Obama’s.
On Sunday, Oct. 26, McCain ran just 331 TV ad units in those seven states — 308% fewer than the 1,350 ad units Obama ran that day.
But on Monday, Obama’s lead in these key battleground states shrank to 113% — or a margin of 1,528 ad units, after McCain’s campaign increased the number of TV ad units it ran in those states by 308%, to 1,353 units.
In comparison, Obama’s campaign ran 2,881 ad units in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia on Monday.
Both candidates continue to focus the bulk of their advertising on Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. On Monday, McCain ran 78% of his 1,353 ads (1,057 units) in those three states, while Obama ran 73% of his 2,881 ads (2,118 units) there.
| State | Obama: Ad Units* (10/26/08) |
Obama: Ad Units* (10/27/08) |
% Growth: Obama Ad Units* (10/26 Vs. 10/27) |
McCain: Ad Units* (10/26/08) |
McCain: Ad Units* (10/27/08) |
% Growth: McCain Ad Units* (10/26 Vs. 10/27) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 166 | 252 | 51.8% | 20 | 36 | 80% |
| Florida | 457 | 996 | 117.9% | 89 | 407 | 357.3% |
| Georgia | 12 | 11 | -8.3% | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Missouri | 93 | 191 | 105.4% | 10 | 101 | 910% |
| Ohio | 266 | 675 | 153.7% | 104 | 322 | 209.6% |
| Pennsylvania | 215 | 447 | 107.9% | 71 | 328 | 361.9% |
| Virginia | 141 | 309 | 119% | 37 | 159 | 329.7% |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (October 26 – 27, 2008). | ||||||
| *Note: Television advertising activity reported includes preliminary commercial occurrences for local and national broadcast TV and syndicated TV. Local cable TV advertising activity is not included. | ||||||
Overall, between Oct. 6 and Oct. 27, Obama placed 153% more ad units (64,917 vs. 25,630) than McCain in these seven key battleground states.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Wall Street Journal, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the St. Petersburg Times.
Stay tuned on NielsenWire for daily political ad updates from the swing states.
