Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign has continued to set records for political advertising by a presidential candidate, having already spent nearly $170 million on television and digital advertising, according to Advertising Analytics, an ad tracking firm. Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire media owner and former mayor of New York, is funding his campaign with his own money and is not soliciting donations.
“We have the means to raise a national campaign unlike any other candidate,” Mr. Frazier said.
Mr. Bloomberg has made targeting Mr. Trump a core element of his ad strategy. Before he announced his candidacy, he pledged to spend $100 million on ads criticizing the president. And since he began his bid, his campaign has unloaded a barrage of Facebook attack ads in general-election swing states, seeking to erode support for Mr. Trump by highlighting what Mr. Bloomberg calls his broken promises on infrastructure, health care and solving dysfunction in Washington.
Super Bowl ads are rarely seen in presidential politics. Though some campaigns have made local advertising buys during past Super Bowls, a national buy has often been out of reach, given the expense. It is also usually viewed as wasteful to pay to reach a 50-state audience rather than buying ads in key states where campaigns would prefer to target their message.
But Mr. Bloomberg is running an unconventional primary campaign with a heavy national emphasis, choosing to avoid the four states that hold the first caucuses and primaries in February and instead focusing his efforts on Super Tuesday on March 3, when 14 states will vote.
“It’s actually smart for Bloomberg,” said Ken Goldstein, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. “Bloomberg is running a national campaign, and the most efficient way to reach a lot of people in a national campaign is buying an ad in a top-rated show. And as expensive as it is, it’s cheaper than buying the ads market by market.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign also has deep pockets. It said last week that it had raised $46 million in the last three months of 2019 and was entering 2020 with $102.7 million in cash on hand.
The Super Bowl ads will air at a politically potent time: The Iowa caucuses are the day after the game (though Mr. Bloomberg has said he is not competing in them), and Mr. Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address the night after that.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/us/politics/bloomberg-trump-super-bowl-ad.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
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