The campaign to elect Democratic candidate Joe Biden to the U.S. presidency is spending big on TV commercial spots during the 2020 NFL season.
The season has officially returned, with strict social distancing and limited crowd sizes in sports arenas due to the coronavirus pandemic. Football fans who can’t attend games in person and are watching from home will get a healthy dose of politics during the broadcasts.
NPR is reporting a Biden campaign aide confirmed that they have reservations to run at least one national ad during each NFL game until Election Day on Nov. 3. According to the report, a tracking firm, Advertising Analytics, places the cost of those prebookings at up to $25 million.
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“I’ve never seen that before in a presidential race,” Ad Analytics’ John Link told NPR. “That is the first time we’ve seen something of that magnitude.”
In addition to that national buy, Ad Analytics found Biden’s campaign also aired seven different ads in 18 local media markets during the opening game, for which the Kansas City Chiefs squared off against the Houston Texans.
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Ad Analytics is reporting that the Trump campaign spent $1.1 million in 21 local TV ads in swing states during the season opener.
“This is our chance to put the darkness of the past four years behind us,” the narrator of Biden’s 60-sec ad, “Fresh Start,” says as it begins. “To end the anger, the insults, divisions, the violence. And start fresh in America.”
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“We’ve had four years of a president who brings out the worst in America,” he notes at the end. “Isn’t it time we had a president who brought out the best?”
In addition to the national commercial, Biden aired additional ads in a number of other individual states.
A new Monmouth University poll this week finds that former Vice President Biden is leading President Donald Trump with a 51% to 44% lead among likely voters.
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