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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 | 9:47am
Tsk Tsk! ABC/ CW Decline to Run 30 Min Obama Ad in Favor of ‘Daises’ & ‘Top Model’
What exactly happened here?
In what amounts a very politically curious move, The ABC and CW networks have taken a pass and will be the sole networks not to run the highly anticipated half-hour Barack Obama television ad. So what will they run in instead? ABC will run its series “Pushing Daisies” which may be on the chopping block due to poor ratings and the CW will 4345th re-run of “America’s Next Top Model.”
In a unprecidented move the Obama campaign bought a half-hour of airtime on NBC, Fox and CBS on October 9, spending about $1 million per network but ABC refused to get in on the party and the network has refused to explain its defiance in its programming intentions. Now we’d be a fool to believe there is some posturing involved.
I don’t know the inner workings of the ABC networks so I won’t go as far as to accuse them of motivations intended to favor John McCain but would I be wrong to do so? If that is indeed the case my next question would be why? After all what’s more bipartasan than money…to the tune of $1 Million in 30 minutes. One source said ABC offered the airtime, but the Obama campaign, for whatever reason, declined to buy an ad. I’m not buying that because in addition to the networks he’s also bough time on BET, TV One, MSNBC and even Univision. They didn’t just conveniently leave ABC out. Their reach is far more expansive than those niche cable networks. Maybe the truth will be revealed some day but in the meantime ABC comes out looking like haters.
The ad airs tonight at 8PM. The Obama camp has kept its contents under close wraps but its said to be taped and focused on the economy.
FILED IN Business & Marketing, Editorials, TV
If I ran a network and saw that all the other networks were gonna be running the same exact show I would surely decline and take advantage of that. There will be a HUGE amount of TV watchers (like most Republicans) who wont want to see Obama’s infomercial and will be channel surfing to avoid it. So what I would do is place what ever show I have running on my network that is really good but is having a hard time finding viewers in that spot because whatever show airs opposite Obama on a major network is going to get big ratings.
Sounds like ABC and CW are just making business moves.
But pushing daisy’s and the very black top model? I’m not buying that theory.
Never seen Pushing Daises but that might be exactly what i mean. Pushing Daises may be a great show (at least in the opinion of the brass at ABC) and they want to take the op to expose as many to people to it as they can.
As for Top Model, that show is popular across the board. I’m not sure why you would call it “black”. Just because Tyra is on it? That is one of the most popular shows on TV period and that viewership goes way past black folk.
We learned about this ad technique in school. It hasn’t been used since the 1970s. It’s called a “roadblock”. Advertisers used to buy time on the 3 major networks (CBS,NBC,ABC) for Monday Night Football. But I digress…
I agree with Mike. I think that ABC did some market research to see that viewers would prefer their hit show “Daisies” as opposed to more politics. It might actually be a sign that ABC has such a strong Democratic base, that it felt the Obama spot would be wasteful on his part.
I dunno, Juan. YOU’RE the “Marketing Executive”. You tell me…
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m glad it worked out this way; Pushing Daisies is one of my favorite shows.
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A few other thoughts…
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For as right-leaning as Fox News is, I was surprised that Fox Entertainment was one of first networks to line up to take the money. I guess cash trumps political principle. MSNBC, on the other hand (from my understanding), is broadcasting it for free, as a ‘news story’.
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Because it’s an advertisement and not a debate, it doesn’t require equal time for the opposition and will be uninterrupted. For those as media savvy as the Obama campaign, it’s going to be like shooting fish in a barrel.
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At the risk of pushing expectations too high, expect tonight’s broadcast to be a watershed moment. I’ve read some of the early rushes on the broadcast, and expect it to “seal the deal” with the undecided voters. I would be surprised if we didn’t see some major polling swings in the next 48 hours.
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For me, I will measure it compared with the Reagan ’84 convention video, which I still rank as the greatest piece of political propaganda in modern history. For those who never saw THAT piece, you can find it here…
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http://malcolmrant.blogspot.com/2007/12/campaign-memories.html
There is no denying it, MSNBC has become for the left what Fox News is for the right. They dont even try to hide it. Can news outlets even claim to be “unbiased” these days?
I agree, and it does a disservice to the news networks as much as to us.
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They all want to be Walter Cronkite, calling for the end of the Vietnam War, but they forget that the reason Cronkite was so powerful at that moment was that he NEVER interjected commentary prior to that.
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I think if we could find a station that just told us the news and let us decide our opinions for ourselves, we’d be much better off.
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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the movie ‘network’ was prophetic.
Doesn’t that exist already in CSPAN?
Yes, but I’m one of only two people in the US who actually watch C-Span (the other being the guy who works at the station)
I do…ok let me stop lying.
you’re a funny dude Zack. You’re right though I am a Marketing Executive. Roadblock might be the technical term, in the CBS family when I worked there they called it “Sudden Impact.” I might buy that argument from Obama if he chose not to run the spot on ABC citing that it duplicates the audience of the other networks, but for ABC this is free Ad money.
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Yall might not believe this but the point of TV from the corporate perspective is not to run programming its to run ads. If they could get away with only running ads and collecting dough they would. Ratings and the quality of the programming only dictate how much they can charge for those ads. They can’t do that because research tells them there’s only but so long they can run ads in a stopset (commercial break) before viewers turn the channel.
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Any way you shake it…if they’re running programming while other people are running a pain commercial it doesn’t matter how large a ratings number they do…they’re loosing out. Believe me they’re not feeling bad for Republicans who are subjected to the ad. This is such a coup for the networks revenue wise. They can’t even discount the spot legally because the law doesn’t allow it for political advertising. There’s more than meets the eye here.
Check this out…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081029/ap_en_tv/tv_obama_ad_abc
It says that ABC was indeed worried that their Wed. night lineup would suffer from the airing of the Obama ad and they tried to make an agreement to air it on a different night. CNN seem to be another channel that said no though.
CNN Said that because they wanted to remain objective.
I guess they taught you how to be arrogant at CBS as well, huh.
Executive or not, I think you have to respect the rights of other peoples’ opinions. It’s not about where you worked but the relationships that could lead to future positions.
Heck, there might be something that I can do to help promote this blog in the Midwest. But by keeping this, “Been There Done That” tone Juan shows that you’ve missed the point of your blessing.
It’s not to brag like Dave Chappelle and say “I’m rich beyotch”, but yet it is to lead by example. And puttin’ me down or any others who haven’t had the opportunities you have had makes me want to start my own Nation.
I agree with what Mike & Zack were saying, because as far as veiwership. Top Model’s ratings have also dropped & maybe a wrap for that so I’ve been hearing from big time ‘fangirls’, so the same strategy may apply.
Lol@ the “I dunno, Juan. YOU’RE the “Marketing Executive”. You tell me…
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Man I’m sorry, but I think everyone is missing the unspoken massage of this move of buying up airtime by the Obama campaign. The only other time (that I know of) the major broadcasting stations interrupts regular broadcasting is for the President or national crisis. This cat ain’t even won yet!!!! He got some brass ones on him dude. This cat is way to cocky for me.
Ross Perot bought 30-minute ads on multiple networks during the 1992 election.
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Richard Nixon did it in 1952 in his attempt to stay in the VP slot for IKE
Are you saying you don’t want a President whose confident d-tae? Not to sound like a racist but I’d bet if it were McCain making this move it’d be seen as brilliant.
It’s still a cocky move no matter how you look at it reguardless who buys the airtime. My man Malcolm pointed out Perot and Nixon did the same thing and look what happen to their political careers. Both of those cats turned out to be real a** holes. It’s just something about cats that push too hard is all I’m saying.
so he should lay low and hope he wins? I think he’s trying to close out the series like any champion should.
Man I’m sorry, but I think everyone is missing the unspoken message of this move of buying up airtime by the Obama campaign. The only other time (that I know of) the major broadcasting stations interrupts regular broadcasting is for the President or national crisis. This cat ain’t even won yet!!!! He got some brass ones on him dude. This cat is way to cocky for me.
Here’s a link talking about Ross Perot doing it.
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http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0DC1F31F934A15753C1A964958260
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Here’s a link talking about Nixon doing it.
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http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon-checkers.htm
Say what you want or not say about it but it seem to me that they(ABC and CW) tryna say something with them shows they will aire instead of O’s ad. Pushin daisies can refer to them foretellin someone tryna make HIM ‘push up daisies’. and the other show, ANTM can refer to someone else taking his place at the podium as ANTM(America’s Next Top Man.) Think about it. Im just sayin tho..
Its a stretch.
their loss