Clinton, Obama Test Messages in Early Nationwide Ads

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Democrats Test Messages in Early Nationwide Ads
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: January 25, 2008

A coast-to-coast onslaught of presidential campaign advertisements began rolling out this week, with Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton already spending millions on commercials in Feb. 5 nominating states on a scale more reminiscent of a general election.

The spots represent something of a test of the messages that each believes could eventually register with a national audience. In one that made its debut on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton, whose campaign has been sparring with Mr. Obama all week, instead trains her fire on the current administration, with the words “Bush did nothing” streaming across a white screen at one point, a reference to what she characterizes as unheeded warnings of a foreclosure crisis.

Mr. Obama uses a new spot to confront concerns about his level of experience, speaking of his role in arms control legislation and ethics reform in the Senate. In others, he seeks to introduce himself to an electorate far more familiar with his principal opponent, describing his mother’s death from cancer at age 53 as inspiring his plan for universal health care and his father’s leaving his mother when he was a small boy as teaching him the value of a solid education.

In focusing on particular states and markets, the candidates are also signaling where they hope to compete for the most delegates. So both have put up new spots in recent days in parts of California, Connecticut, Georgia, New Mexico and Utah, with Mr. Obama adding Alabama and Delaware and Mrs. Clinton also setting her sights on Arizona, Massachusetts and Missouri. By choosing to spend several million dollars each on commercials that will run simultaneously in more than a dozen states over the next 10 days — and, in Mr. Obama’s case, on CNN and MSNBC as well — Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton are being driven by the tight nature of the race thus far and by the bunching of Democratic nominating contests in 22 states on Feb. 5.

All told, the Clinton and Obama campaigns are each believed to be spending at least $2 million a week on television advertising in the days before what is being billed as Super Tuesday — Mr. Obama’s cable advertising bill alone is an estimated $1 million — sums so large that it could make it harder for them to afford advertising in states with later contests if the nomination is not settled that day....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/us/politics/25ads.html?_r=1&oref=slogin