AdImpact reveals that political advertorial spending has reached a massive USD 9.67 billion for the midterm elections of 2022, an all-time high expenditure.
Primetime TV’s taking a hit these days, what with so much advertising and product placement taking place online nowadays. Sure, TV ads are still an important part of brands or individuals reaching out to the masses, and advertising on the (relatively) big screen is still seen as more “serious” than the occasional Instagram post. However, people are becoming more and more attenuated to online advertising and how it’s a marketplace that can determine the success or failure of a campaign.
Particularly, politicians have decided to actively split their budgets between TV and online sources, with the former aiming for a formal presentation and the latter being a strategy towards appearing more approachable. Politicians can’t abstain from manning every front: presence counts a lot, especially when you’re attempting to connect and appeal to the masses. Then again, US politicians have a remarkably rich history of posting blackface selfies for all to see, so I’m not exactly vouching for competency here.
At any rate, advertising spending reaching a whopping USD 9.67 billion, and that too for mid-term elections, means that politicians have more or less surrendered themselves to both on-screen and online presence. When every vote matters and audiences all have different forms of media consumption, one can’t afford to. However, and I have to stress this, 9.67 billion dollars is a massive amount. For comparison, the 2020 presidential elections had a recorded ad spend of USD 9.02 billion, which was also considered outrageous for the time.
The 2018 mid-term elections, only four years past, had a total allocated budget of USD 3.96 billion. That’s a 7% increase from the former, and over two times the generated revenue of the latter. AdImpact’s predictions for 2022 ended up at approximately USD 8.9 billion; an amount that was considered more than reasonable for a non-Presidential year. The number was significantly outweighed by the actual amount, and now I’m sitting here wondering exactly how much we can differentiate between politicians and, say, influencers.
Now, if only these lovely individuals could start openly discussing where they receive such massive amounts of funding from (cough, cough, fossil fuel barons), then maybe we can start having more serious discussions about political incentives.
Read next: Twitter Steps Up Efforts To Fight Misinformation Spread Online Before US Midterm Elections
Primetime TV’s taking a hit these days, what with so much advertising and product placement taking place online nowadays. Sure, TV ads are still an important part of brands or individuals reaching out to the masses, and advertising on the (relatively) big screen is still seen as more “serious” than the occasional Instagram post. However, people are becoming more and more attenuated to online advertising and how it’s a marketplace that can determine the success or failure of a campaign.
Particularly, politicians have decided to actively split their budgets between TV and online sources, with the former aiming for a formal presentation and the latter being a strategy towards appearing more approachable. Politicians can’t abstain from manning every front: presence counts a lot, especially when you’re attempting to connect and appeal to the masses. Then again, US politicians have a remarkably rich history of posting blackface selfies for all to see, so I’m not exactly vouching for competency here.
At any rate, advertising spending reaching a whopping USD 9.67 billion, and that too for mid-term elections, means that politicians have more or less surrendered themselves to both on-screen and online presence. When every vote matters and audiences all have different forms of media consumption, one can’t afford to. However, and I have to stress this, 9.67 billion dollars is a massive amount. For comparison, the 2020 presidential elections had a recorded ad spend of USD 9.02 billion, which was also considered outrageous for the time.
The 2018 mid-term elections, only four years past, had a total allocated budget of USD 3.96 billion. That’s a 7% increase from the former, and over two times the generated revenue of the latter. AdImpact’s predictions for 2022 ended up at approximately USD 8.9 billion; an amount that was considered more than reasonable for a non-Presidential year. The number was significantly outweighed by the actual amount, and now I’m sitting here wondering exactly how much we can differentiate between politicians and, say, influencers.
Now, if only these lovely individuals could start openly discussing where they receive such massive amounts of funding from (cough, cough, fossil fuel barons), then maybe we can start having more serious discussions about political incentives.
Read next: Twitter Steps Up Efforts To Fight Misinformation Spread Online Before US Midterm Elections
