Fri 13 Apr 2007
Drink beer, eat candy, buy a car. Now add a new pitch to next year’s lineup of Super Bowl television ads: Vote for me. Politics? On Super Bowl Sunday?
As states line up to hold presidential primaries on the first Tuesday in February, the Feb. 3 Super Bowl could look super inviting and super expensive to presidential campaigns eager to deliver a knockout punch.
“That is a very ripe and timely target,” said Mark McKinnon, chief media strategist for President Bush in 2000 and 2004 and now an adviser to Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record)’s presidential campaign. “It would reach a huge audience at a very critical time. I think campaigns will look very closely at that.”
That campaigns would give serious thought to advertising on Super Bowl Sunday illustrates how a packed primary schedule in early February could upend the traditional pace and the time-tested strategies of presidential elections.
No. If you’re arrogant enough to put a campaign ad on Superbowl Sunday, then chances are you have no concept of shame. Consider yourself disqualified.