Joe Biden Uses Multiple Ads to Keep Message Fresh

23 Oct 2020, 07:02 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s fundraising advantage is letting him run several ads on different themes in crucial markets, giving him an edge over President Donald Trump, who can’t afford as many spots and is passing on some key areas.

By churning multiple ads in a single market, Biden is able to increase the voters he reaches, keeping his content fresh and keeping viewers from tuning out. In more than two-dozen markets in critical battleground states in recent weeks, Biden has been reaching significant numbers of viewers with at least five different ads, while Trump is doing so in just one market.

Both campaigns are running ads in the hotly contested Michigan market that covers Flint, Saginaw and Bay City, with Trump reaching about half as many viewers. Most see three ads, two of which attack Biden’s tax plan and a third that touts economic gains in the Trump administration.

Most viewers have seen six spots that highlight Biden’s leadership style, promote his health care plan, promise to defend Social Security and Medicare, fault Trump’s handling of the pandemic and offer a rebuttal to the tax plan.

With just 11 days until the election, Biden is leading Trump by just under 8 points in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls. He also leads in many key battleground states, but the race is tighter in those.

Biden’s campaign began October with $177.3 million cash on hand compared with $63.1 million for Trump, Federal Election Commission filings show. Biden’s campaign has booked $172 million in television ad time from Oct. 1 through the election, according to Advertising Analytics, while Trump has booked $69 million.

That allows Biden to rotate his messages. Over the past week, Biden ran 74 unique ads, spending an estimated $25.2 million compared with 22 for Trump at $9.3 million. And Biden is still adding new spots, including ads themed to getting out the vote in particular markets.

Biden continues to add new spots to the mix. The campaign started airing in Flint and three other Michigan markets this week an ad featuring four Black men sitting outside, talking about the importance of voting. “We’ve got to get our people to get out and vote,” one says in the 30-second spot, which ends with the address of the Democratic National Committee’s online clearinghouse for voters.

”More people are casting ballots earlier than ever this year, so this year our GOTV ads started early,” said Scott Syroka, Biden’s states paid media director, referring to get-out-the-vote efforts.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager said that Biden’s multiple ads show he doesn’t have a cohesive message. “The Trump campaign, on the other hand, utilizes our $350 million data program to concisely and tactically reach voters with the right message.”

A Biden ad featuring actor Samuel L. Jackson, running in battleground markets with large African-American populations, recounts the nation’s history of suppressing Black votes. “If your vote didn’t matter, they wouldn’t try so hard to take it from you,” Jackson says. Bridgett Floyd, the sister of George Floyd, whose death in May sparked nationwide protests against police brutality, stars in an ad airing in Minneapolis, in which she tells viewers that their vote does matter.

A spot airing in the Pittsburgh broadcast market on Sunday, which serves some counties that favored Trump in 2016, features former Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who retired three years after suffering a severe spinal injury in 2017, saying he didn’t vote in 2016 but won’t make that mistake again.

“That’s not very common, unless they are disproportionately airing in markets that vote Democratic,” said Michael Franz, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, of running voter-mobilization ads on television. “It also suggests some confidence from Biden that the electorate is moving toward him.”