When you see some candidates airing 30 second ads two or three times an hour during campaign season--on at least 4 channels--it adds up quick. $60K and up per night to drive everyone watching fucking nuts. Per candidate.
Multiply that by the 100+ days that these ads generally air (over and over and over again--they tend to put as little money as possible into actual production of the ads so they can spend as much as possible on airtime), and that's over $6 million--to run a campaign in one mid-sized market. That's just for the TV ads.
That's ridiculous.
It's also difficult to do anything about it without running into First Amendment issues. Political speech is highly protected in the US, and overall, that's a good thing.
But there must be some alternative to spending $6 million to drive me out of my mind every other fall.
The biggest problem with TV campaign advertising is that it works. That's the way out, too.
I'm sorely tempted to just vote for whoever ran the fewest ads. Which could actually lead to some very bad choices. But you know, omelettes and eggs.
We have a chance to make a difference here, people! Vote for the candidate that ran the fewest TV ads! If it becomes a trend, then politicians will be lining up to not run TV ads at all!
They could turn to alternate methods of campaigning:
- Knock on doors
- Kiss babies
- Recruit volunteers to bother people in grocery store parking lots.
- Hold rallies--spread the word by blog, e-mail, twitter, etc. You could have political flash mobs!
- Lawn signs and bumper stickers
- Appear on reality shows. Maybe even the news
Especially if it meant that I could watch TV in the fall of even-numbered years again.
$30 a second!
