Kos put up a post yesterday exhorting campaigns to "buy cable." And, yes, that's good advice. But it's actually not a simple decision on where to place ads, as the comment thread made clear. There were a lot of good ideas and thoughts about buying media ads in there. So ... you wanna do it?
Today we're unveiling our new ads to you, and we're asking for your help in airing them and taking the fight to our opponent, John McHugh. But we don't just want your financial help, we also want your ideas on what to do with it. We want you to be our media advisors. You get to program a week of our ad buy. And no, I'm not kidding. I really mean it. Tell us where to run our ads. We think there's enough knowledge and talent in the net-roots that you guys can do it and do it well. And besides ... it's kinda fun. The post yesterday was about cable vs. broadcast ... well, here's your chance to think through the issues and make a buy.
First off, let's unveil our new ads, and I have to say: the one going after McHugh is pretty tough, and I don't think I've seen anything quite like it (this is an image link to the YouTube page ... I can't seem to embed YouTube here):
That makes us chuckle in the campaign. The thing that's particularly effective about that is that it uses John McHugh's official head shot, so that whenever anyone who sees the ad later sees McHugh's campaign materials ... they can't help but think of him fading away! LOL.
And it's true: John McHugh really has disappeared down in Washington. The man sits on the Armed Services Committee! And, with billions missing in Iraq, with drivers sent to their death driving empty convoys because the contracting company was getting paid "per convoy," with soldiers drinking Euphrates water laced with sewage because Halliburton didn't filter it like they were supposed to, the Republican-led committee still hasn't held a single hearing on corruption in Iraq.
So, I have no qualms running that ad. It's tough, but fair. In fact, it's introducing a theme and a graphical concept that will show up a lot more in our campaign (I don't want to give anything away, yet ... I'll let all of you know about it soon).
But, we're also running a positive ad to introduce people to what I'm about and what this campaign is about. It's the "good cop" to the other ad's "bad cop":
So, there they are. And now, let's get to the fun ... you guys get to place the ads.
I've mentioned before how cheap our district is to run ads, and I even made an off-hand comment once that the ads were so cheap, you could sponsor an ad all by yourself. Well, we started to talk about it and realized it was no joke. Our ads really are so cheap to run, a normal small donor could buy ad time. We're talking rates as low as $15 to run an ad on Face the Nation. This is not like many districts, where we need to buy ads in a major market and need a lot of contributions to buy one ad slot. No, in our race, you, all by yourself, can make a difference and reach voters. And, since our belief in empowering the net-roots animates a lot of what we do, we're empowering you here.
Here's the deal: we'd love to have you contribute to the campaign so we can run these ads. And, if you do, you get to choose which ad you like and where it should run. Seriously. You get to buy your own time. If you think you've always wanted an ad that nailed a Republican to run on Fox News ($22), this is your chance. If you wanted to support the Daily Show by placing an ad there ($27), you can do that, too. But, contra Kos's post last night, cable in our market doesn't have very good penetration outside of the Syracuse suburbs that are part of our district (more on that at the end of the post). So, you might want to place ads on our local morning news ($30), or hit the older demographic on The Price is Right ($55), or maybe the 11 o'clock news ($105). Maybe you want to solicit some others to join you in buying time on our hugely well-watched local 6 o'clock news, where an ad on a news show with an amazing 60 share goes for $223 dollars a spot, or on 60 Minutes for $250. Or Letterman for $30. Or House on Fox for $75. Or the Simpsons for $90. I'll run down a list at the end of the post, as well as some of the basic facts you need to make your decisions ...
But you don't have to give to have your voice be part of the discussion.
If you can't give (or can't contribute enough to buy what you think should be bought), but you have some ideas on how to reach out to our district with these ads, and you want to help place ads to reach a wide range of demographics, tell us below in the comments. And discuss it amongst yourselves ... we'll take the consensus and put our own money toward it. You guys get to program a week of our ads. And, just to give you a target, say we in the campaign have $2000 for that week. That's not actually it (don't want to tell the McHugh staffers who are reading this what we are really going to spend ... hi guys!), but we can scale your recommendations to our actual budget.
Just tell us in comments if you gave, and what you want to have happen to your ad. And we'll do it. And if you didn't give, tell us where we should spend the other money. We want to empower you guys beyond just the contributions, and we also think that the collective wisdom on these pages can create something powerful and workable, if campaigns choose to listen.
No normal campaign would do anything like this, I'm sure. If I were running that kind of campaign, my media advisors and ad agencies would scream bloody murder if I approached them with this idea. Luckily, my media advisor's also my Internet advisor (as well as being a Kossack himself--BriVT), so he thought this was a great idea. He also makes the buys and produces the ads, so all of your contributions go straight to bringing our message to the voters, and not to paying any agency fees or an outside production team.
And, as I explained in my last diary, this race is winnable, but I need to raise my name ID A LOT. And that's where these ads come in. No one has run any ads consistently in a race against McHugh for a long time, if ever. He's the ultimate paper tiger. But we need your help. We have enough money to place ads up here, but we need more to extend our reach. And, unlike a suburban race in a big media market, each of you can help with a single contribution.
So, please help with a contribution and, especially, have some fun with this. Because campaigns can get pretty brutal without a little fun ...
{I'm Bob Johnson and I'm running against do-nothing GOP foot-soldier John McHugh in New York's 23rd district. Contributions and volunteers accepted from all over the country ... you don't need to be in my district to volunteer}
Here's a run-down of some ad rates and shows in addition to the ones up in the post:
--Prime time CBS is generally $200 for lower-watched shows up to $500 for CSI
--CBS Early Show: $35
--Soaps: $40
--Regis and Kelly: $35
--Noon News: $40
--Jeopardy/Wheel: $90
--Weather on the Hour around ABC Evening News: $75
--7 am weather break: $15
--ABC Prime: $450 for Grey's Anatomy or Lost; $150 for just about everything else
--Nightline: $25
--10 o'clock News on Fox affiliate: $50
--Fox Prime: $75-$90
--To advertise over our district on another cable channel (History Channel, etc): generally $15-$20
A couple of things to think about: the cable rates are for a reach that really only hits a portion of our district fairly well (map of our district here), the portion down near Syracuse around Oswego and Oneida. The cable in the rest of the district got hammered in a huge Ice Storm in '98, and it's a rural area anyway. So ... very little cable penetration. OTOH, the broadcast rates are for the stations that hit our region extremely well, where the entire market lies within our district, so there is no wastage. I can't really give you rating points, but a general rule of thumb ... you get what you pay for. The main exception is that 60 Minutes is actually a bit overpriced ... good demographics, though.
And, for a very general look at who watches what kind of program, go here
So there's some basic facts ... now go to it!