Who has "More" Negative Ads: Obama or McCain?

by Josh Dahlin and Russell Place

In the final presidential debate John McCain stated:

“And it's a matter of fact that Senator Obama has spent more money on negative ads than any political campaign in history.”

Is this claim true? Has Obama spent the most on negative ads in history? Maybe he has simply spent the most on ads overall.

An article by Alexander Mooney from CNN politics on October 12, 2008, states that Obama is spending far more money on his campaign than McCain is, but while McCain is nearly 100% negative with his ads, Obama has about ½ positive ads and ½ negative ads throughout the campaign. This was from data collected by a University of Wisconsin Advertising Project study. The spending by McCain and Obama is roughly equal, according to CNN.

The University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group, has an article saying the claims that Obama and McCain have been making are true in different time frames. When Obama claims McCain has been all negative, he is citing numbers about ads run from September 28th till October 4th, which directly attack either Obama or the Democratic Party. However, from June 4th to October 4th, 47% of his ads were negative, 26% were positive, and 27% were contrast ads, which are a mixture of positive and negative. As for Obama, 35% of his ads have been negative, 35% have been positive, and 25% fall into the contrast ad category. This article finds that on pure negative ads McCain leads, but if contrast ads are considered negative, the campaigns are nearly equal on negative ads.

Some examples of these ads can be found here. There are different kinds of ads there from McCain and Obama.

Spending in presidential campaigns has been climbing each year. Evan Tracey, CMAG’s chief operating officer and CNN’s consultant on political ad spending, says that in 2000 one billion dollars were spent in total on political ads, but that number rose to 1.7 billion in 2004, and 2.4 billion in 2006. This year won’t be any different, with predicted spending of over three billion dollars.

An article by Jim Rutenberg for the International Herald Tribune states that Obama will set a record. He won’t set a record for the most spent on negative ads in the history, but he will set a record for the most spent on ads period, surpassing the $188 million spent by George W. Bush in his reelection campaign of 2004. By the looks of the campaign, Bush’s record will be obliterated by Obama, who declined to take public financing so he could raise more money from private donors. McCain on the other hand has spent around 91 million, only about ½ what Obama has spent.

Lesson: Does Barack Obama have the most negative ad spending in history? It appears that McCain is relying more on negative campaign advertising as a percentage of his ads. It is a fact, however, that Obama will surpass Bush’s spending record of 188 million dollars, with McCain finishing far behind. McCain has less money, but is more focused on negative ads, while Obama has so much money to spend that he can run plenty of negative and positive ads.