McCain's Ad Removal Could Save Campaign $1 Million A Day

The McCain campaign is working "feverishly" to take down television advertisements that it is running nationally, according to sources who follow media ad buys. And the move, driven by the Senator's self-enforced suspension of his campaign, could save his candidacy more than a million dollars a day.

Officials from markets across the country reported on Thursday that the McCain campaign had contacted them about temporarily postponing the television slots they had purchased, Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group told Huffington Post. But because of the abruptness of the policy change, the effort was taking time.

"I'm sure it probably took a little bit of time knowing what that exactly means," said Tracey, "and buying television spots is like buying airline tickets, every station has a different policy on what they will cancel."

As a byproduct of the move, the McCain campaign stood to save more than a million dollars a day. On September 23, for example, his campaign spent $1.1 million on 2,600 national ads. Today only a portion of them ran. Tomorrow, Tracey predicted, 90 to 95 percent would be completely off the air.

One Democratic source involved in the ad buy industry suggested that McCain's move was driven by financial as well as political concerns. Saving cash in the interim -- when the race is dominated by economic news and the upcoming debates -- would allow McCain to plow money back into the race during the waning days of the election.

"They are not going to penetrate in this issue climate," said the source. "The debates are coming up, so that is free media. And they are going to need bigger investments in key states down the road."

Indeed, McCain -- constrained by public financing -- is already facing a daunting task in matching Obama's ad purchases. While the Arizona Republican spent $1.1 million on Tuesday, Obama forked over $2.1 million, according to a source familiar with the buy. Moreover, more than $800,000 of McCain's purchase actually came through the joint committee that he shares with the RNC.

In light of McCain taking down his ads, Tracey had a clever piece of advice for Obama: fill the void.

"If I were running the Obama campaign, I would be trying to buy every TV spot the McCain camp is giving up today because advertising works when there is tonnage," he said. "Media works when there is a lot of horsepower behind it. Take what the other side is giving you, which is basically free reign with the television viewing audience."

But according to the Democratic source, there were no plans at this point in time for Obama to increase his expenditure. "The campaign," he added, "felt like it was saturating the airwaves already."

Comments

[breathestolive]

10:40 AM on 09/26/2008

He hasn't suspended a thing here in Ohio. Attack ads run 24/7 here, almost all of them with half-truth­s and downright baldfaced lies abounding.

[Faith101]

01:47 AM on 09/26/2008

McCain is crashing and burning. People we need to start paying attention to more overseas news media and stop following our news media for every crumb of informatio­n. We are being shafted by a mile. Check out this article:

http://www­.dailykos.­com/story/­2008/9/26/­04145/0109­/334/61090­1

[Fbart]

01:08 AM on 09/26/2008

I live in Cleveland, the non-stop barrage of McCain adds has not and probably will not stop

[mediamarv]

01:42 AM on 09/26/2008

Why is this story still here? It's been made moot by events?
HuffPo has gotten unusually slow at replacing stories or updates.

Annoying when things are changing so quickly.

[planetjeffy]

07:45 PM on 09/25/2008

McWhatever could save the country by cutting that ugly growth off his neck.

[armason]

07:01 PM on 09/25/2008

HE IS SUCH A FAKE..SIT ON AN EGG MCCAIN

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

06:38 PM on 09/25/2008

1 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY OF THE CLASS OF THE NEW GENERATION­'S MONEY!

[Mag44]

06:09 PM on 09/25/2008

How long is he suspending his campaign? Until they come up w/a solution on the bail out? What if it doesn't get resolved before Nov 4th. Is that a forfeit on Mc part?

[Siryn]

03:56 PM on 09/25/2008

It is probably twofold. I had a feeling money was part of it, the other part is that Sarah Palin isn't ready - why else try to push off the vp debate too? She is cringewort­hy in every single interview and cannot give coherent answers.

[suekzoo]

03:52 PM on 09/25/2008

If McCain suspended his campaign, why are his ads still running on cable and broadcast channels here in southwest Michigan?

Anyone else still seeing tv ads?

[marytny]

04:57 PM on 09/25/2008

yup. and I'm a solid blue state.
He's not a good money manager...­.

[cherlybear]

03:51 PM on 09/25/2008

I'm listening to Air America right now and they are getting a lot of calls from listeners that McCain ads are running as usual. So much for suspending the campaign for the good of the country...

[SaltySaltillo]

03:49 PM on 09/25/2008

Let's ramp up the purple state spending, Obama. Keep pounding NC and IN. Keep pounding FL and VA and OH. Just for fun, let's try to close that 4 point gap in WV while we're at it. C'mon.

[PioneerKing]

03:40 PM on 09/25/2008

SO NOW WE LEARN THE TRUTH - McCain's campaign is sucking wind and is trying to save money. Well to late for that if they really were honest about the suspension of the campaign they should have had the ads stopped yesterday.
By waiting until today is more than half over to try and get back ad money is bull. McCain's campaign got busted in it's fake campaign suspension is now trying to cover their lying butt.

They fool no one!

[armason]

07:00 PM on 09/25/2008

Forget the 1 Million a Day...Put Country First and just QUIT the entire Lie Filled, deceptive , razzle dazzle, Hail Mary Campaign..­You could save 40 Million dude

[UncommonSenz]

03:29 PM on 09/25/2008

I am sure that this was the McCain campaign rationale:

1) We'll stop spending money on ads (and the press we'll get will be just like campaignin­g, except we don't have to pay for it)

2) It distracts from Palin. She interviews like the recent "such as Iraq and so forth" beauty pageant contestant­.

3) It distracts from Rick Davis - access prostitute (Pulling a Gary Hart and challengin­g the media appears to have backfired)

4) It gets us out of this debate PLUS the VP debate (And that has to be better than actually participat­ing in them)

5) It distracts from the polls (which are dropping like a stone)

and most importantl­y

6) We can label any hard question as "not important" or "too political" and be able to offer NO explanatio­ns to any of our recent bizarre statements­/actions. It is like winning immunity on Survivor.

I am sure that was the plan. But now the "deadlock" he wanted to rush to (after an interview and some grandstand­ing in NY, of course) and single handedly "solve" has already been hammered out by the adults (and he gobbled up all his prep time doing this crap), he is in for one hell of a cold shower.

[mderum]

03:17 PM on 09/25/2008

NEVER FORGET - MCCAIN IS A MEMBER OF THE KEATING 5
MCCAIN'S POLITICS AND ECONOMICS HAVE NOT CHANGED!

[DieHardObamaSupporter]

03:15 PM on 09/25/2008

He has so many political ploys regarding this suspension gimmick. I just hope he is not allowed to

resume campaign fundraisin­g. As we all recall, HRC was allowed after she suspended hers.