Campaign ads: Dems watch more TV, 473 Bush ads on "Will & Grace"

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times:

How to Sell a Candidate to a Porsche-Driving, Leno-Loving Nascar Fan
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: December 6, 2004

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - After the 2000 presidential campaign, strategists for President Bush came to a startling realization: Democrats watch more television than Republicans. So by buying millions of dollars' worth of television advertising time, Republicans were spending their money on audiences that tended to vote Democratic.

What to do? With the luxury of four years until the next election, the Bush team examined voters' television-viewing habits and cross-referenced them with surveys of voters' political and lifestyle preferences.

This led to an unusual step for a presidential campaign: it cut the proportion of money that it put into broadcast television and diverted more to niche cable channels and radio, where it could more precisely reach its target audience....

***

Democratic strategists working for Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign said they had much the same consumer data as the Bush team, but they stuck largely with broadcast television because that was where their viewers were....

***

The data also yielded unexpected insights. One of the shows most popular with Republicans, especially Republican women ages 18 to 34, turned out to be "Will & Grace," the sitcom about gay life in New York. As a result, while Mr. Bush was shoring up his conservative credentials by supporting a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, his advertising team was buying time on a program that celebrates gay culture.

The Bush team broadcast commercials 473 times on "Will & Grace" in markets across the country from Jan. 1 to Nov. 2...(The Kerry campaign broadcast commercials 859 times on the show.)...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/politics/06strategy.html

[JI7]

1. probably people like his daughters

they aren't culturally conservative but don't give a shit about anyone else. they just live their stupid lives and go on with it. they benefit from his economic plans also.

[hopein08]

2. "Sex in the City"

Remember the twins cutesy mention of the quite un-conservative show at the Repub. Convention?

[formernaderite]

3. Isn't the woman who originally wrote the books the series is based on...

a republican? Candace something or other...

[hopein08]

5. Candace Bushnell

But I don't know if she's a Republican.

[Kipepeo]

4. This blows me away

One of the shows most popular with Republicans, especially Republican women ages 18 to 34, turned out to be "Will & Grace," the sitcom about gay life in New York.

They watch Will and Grace and then vote for a candidate who practically ran on gay-hate alone?

[Tharks]

6. I'm confused

Wouldn't you want to show your commercials to the audience that typically votes the other way? What's the point in showing commercials to the people you already have? Targeting independents and undecided tv shows makes a lot more sense to me.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Hi, Tharks -- welcome to DU!

I think they do target independents and undecideds -- maybe they just write off demographics they know will not be convinced.

[Piperay]

8. Logic would tell you that but

they were concerned (I think) with just getting their voters to turn out so they get them all stirred with their ads.

and WELCOME to DU! :hi:

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Exactly -- candidates have to motivate their people to get to the polls --

[InvisibleBallots]

10. Democrats watch more TV than Republicans, AND

Republican women like Will & Grace. You know, this is not really a suprise, or at least it shouldn't be.

[Skinner]

11. This is an extremely important story.

A Democratic insider I know tells me that this year the GOP did an amazing job of using consumer data to micro-target voters, including traditional Democratic constituencies. This is how the corporate world has been selling credit cards and magazines and coca cola for years. Dems, on the other hand were "supposed to do this" but for some reason did not. This article talks about TV targeting, but the GOP was able to do even better consumer-testing-and-targeting using direct mail.

The GOP dominance in modern selling techniques puts us at a huge disadvantage. We had piles of money this year, and we should have made this a priority.

[InvisibleBallots]

12. don't worry

"We had piles of money this year, and we should have made this a priority."

Kerry still has lots of money left, I'm sure he'll use it next time.

[Macperdilia]

13. My explanations...

I have several possible explanations for the obvious discrepancy between what people like to watch on TV and who they vote for, all of which probably can be boiled down to compensation:

1)Women in the red states like to watch shows like Sex in the City, Will and Grace and Desparate Housewives because, although they might not LOOK as good or LEAD the type of interesting life they see on TV, it makes them feel MORALLY superior.

2)They like to watch morally loose shows, which makes them feel guilty , so they at least go to church and vote conservative to make them feel "right".

3)I'm absolutely amazed at the incredible fervor with which the oh so moral Republicans keep telling the dirtiest Clinton jokes. Again - they make up for their dirty imagination with at least voting "morally" right....