Advertising Age' s Campaign Trail blog has a noteworthy item on the air wars that you can read here. Writes Evan Tracey:
If you had told me back in January that after Labor Day Rudy Giuliani would have aired zero TV ads, John McCain would have just run his first ad, Mitt Romney would have run ads unchecked on the airways in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida, that Bill Richardson would have spent more on TV ads than John Edwards and Hillary Clinton combined, and that only a handful of states would have even seen presidential ad buys, I would have said you were crazy. Well, call me crazy.
Tracey points out that "three campaigns (Richardson, Obama and Romney) have already spent more than the eventual winner spent in total on Iowa TV in 2003." This really may turn out to be the longest presidential campaign ever. Tracey ends his post with three questions: "Who goes negative first? What role will independent groups ultimately play? Will anyone be around to air an ad on the Super Bowl?" They are all questions worth asking.