When NFL enthusiasts in a half-dozen swing states tune in for the season opener Thursday, they will be greeted by a campaign ad touting President Joe Biden's stewardship of the economy, according to Axios.
Titled “Got to Work,” the 30-second spot will air in Michigan, home to one of the opening teams, the Detroit Lions, along with Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The season opener, featuring the Lions vs. Kansas City Chiefs, will air on NBC and the network's streaming platform, Peacock.
The ad, part of a $25 million ad buy that also includes digital hits, aims to set a baseline against which voters can judge the nation's economic progress.
"They said millions would lose their jobs and the economy would collapse," begins the narrator. "But this president refused to let that happen. Instead he got to work," the ad continues, saying Biden passed laws to fix supply chains, fight corporate greed, make medicine more affordable, and make the country more energy independent.
Inflation, the ad says, is down to 3% and unemployment is "the lowest in decades." While there's more to do, the narrator says, "President Biden is getting results that matter."
Saying "this president" early in the script instead of directly naming Biden is an interesting choice. It may mean nothing, but it could also be an attempt to keep casual viewers and listeners engaged with the ad for the longest amount of time possible. Perhaps some viewers would pay attention longer before hearing a specific name and making a split decision about whether to tune out or in for the remainder of the ad.
Team Biden is focused on the basics here: Hey, there are more jobs, inflation is down, drug prices are falling, and we're sticking it to greedy corporations. While polls routinely show that all of those items test extremely well, many voters remain clueless about Biden's record on the issues.
Biden's record on handling the economy has slowly improved over the past year, according to Civiqs tracking of the issue.
At the beginning of the year, for instance, Biden was 22 points underwater on his handling of the economy, with 33% saying he was doing a good job while 55% said he wasn't. Now, Biden is about 17 points underwater, 37% - 54%. Not exactly stellar, but still an improvement.
Biden's record on job creation is a similar story, with just 33% of registered voters saying he was doing enough to create jobs in March 2021, when he first signed the American Rescue Plan. But now, following enactment of Biden's trillion-dollar infrastructure law and his $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act, 40% of likely voters believe he's doing enough to create jobs, while 51% say he isn't. It's not awe-inspiring, but being 11 points underwater now is better than being 17 points underwater on the question in March 2021.
Team Biden must continue making small incremental changes on these numbers over the next year. At the very least, voters’ perceptions are currently trending in the right direction. And during the season opener, Biden will be reaching out to a niche audience: swing voters in swing states, who are currently hearing steady reports of criminal indictments for the front-runner on the other side of the aisle. Sane, competent, and moving in the right direction is a nice contrast to Trump's criminal conspiracy parade.
Trump’s continuing legal problems, the car crash of a Republican debate, and the polling numbers defy the traditional media’s narrative that the Republican Party is even above water with voters.