From June 3, when the primaries ended, through Sept. 7, the most recent reporting period, the McCain campaign ran 76,192 negative ads against Obama.  During the same time period, the Obama campaign placed 75,246 negative commercials against McCain.

Negative advertising by both candidates and the “527” groups that support them has concentrated in the top battleground states, led by Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The three commercials used most frequently by each candidate’s campaigns aired more than 10,000 times each.

View each candidate’s top negative ad below.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Newsweek, AdAge, the Chicago Tribune’s “The Swamp” political blog, The Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times.

McCain Ad: Expensive Plans

Obama Ad: Book

“Engagement” refers to the amount of attention paid to a television program by the average viewer.  Nielsen measures TV engagement by questioning a representative panel of viewers about their recall of specific telecasts’ content.

John McCain’s acceptance speech on September 4 drew the most attentive audience of uncommitted viewers, Nielsen reported.  Telecasts of Barack Obama’s and Sarah Palin’s acceptance speeches on August 28 and September 3, respectively, tied in second place as the second most engaging telecasts among uncommitted viewers.

Overall, viewers were more engaged by the telecasts of the RNC vs. the DNC.  Registered voters were 10% more engaged by the RNC than the DNC, while likely voters were 12% more engaged in RNC viewing. 

Male viewers were among the most attentive RNC viewers (15% higher engagement with RNC than DNC), as were older viewers, ages 35 and older, who were 13% more engaged by the RNC than the DNC. 

In contrast, younger viewers, ages 18 to 34, were 13% more engaged by the DNC, as compared with the RNC.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Boston Globe and The Huffington Post.