Where Parties Look for an Audience - 重返犯罪現場

時值美國國會期中選舉，這篇NYT的新聞主要是講述美國政黨購買廣告的傾向，
裡面提到，基於劇情調性(替海軍工作的好傢伙對付壞傢伙)，共和黨人是NCIS的
主要廣告買主。


October 30, 2010
Where Parties Look for an Audience
By ASHLEY PARKER

WASHINGTON — “Dancing With the Stars,” where Bristol Palin hopes to fox
trot and quick step her way to a disco ball trophy, has the most political ad
purchases on prime-time television among both Democratic and Republican media
buyers. But the bipartisan consensus on America’s TV habits apparently ends
there.

Republican ad buyers favor sports programming (“Saturday Night College
Football”) and crime dramas (“NCIS”), while their Democratic counterparts
are more likely to place ads on comedies (“Two and a Half Men”) and talk
programming (“The Dr. Oz Show.”)

Republicans are more likely to buy certain types of crime dramas that skew
Republican,” said Will Feltus, the senior vice president of National Media
Inc., a Republican political media buying organization. “Republicans tend
to like shows where there are good guys and bad guys, and where the good
guy prevails. On ‘NCIS,’ the good guys just so happen to work for the
Navy.”

Political spending on television advertising is set to hit $3 billion for
this year’s Congressional elections, breaking all previous highs, and
political ad buyers from both parties have expanded their ad placement to
focus on voters watching prime time.

An analysis by The New York Times of the ad buys for Senate and governors’
campaigns over a one-month period between mid-September and mid-October —
using data provided by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a political ad
tracking firm, and with help from National Media Inc. — found that while
Democrats and Republicans advertise roughly equally on the top-rated
prime-time shows, some differences do emerge.

Republicans bought nearly three times as many ads as Democrats on “Saturday
Night College Football,” more than twice as many on “Sunday Night NFL
Football” and Nascar racing, and almost twice as many during Major League
Baseball games.

According to demographic data from the Nielsen Company, the sports shows most
favored by Republican buyers — “Saturday Night College Football,” “NBC
Sunday Night Football,” “NFL Sunday Kickoff,” Nascar racing and Major
League Baseball — have an audience that is nearly two-thirds or higher male.

College sports is probably the cleanest buy for Republicans, or the buy
where they’re getting the biggest advantage,” said Ken Goldstein, the
research director for the Midwest Media Research Foundation. “Republicans
think their base is more likely to be watching sports, and if they’re
looking for younger males, or younger white males, it’s college football.”

Republicans also out-advertised Democrats on crime shows, placing roughly
one-third more ads on shows like “Detroit 1-8-7,” “Medium,” “Cops,” “
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “48 Hours Mystery” and “NCIS.”

Democrats tended to focus on talk shows, placing roughly two-and-a-half
times as many ads as Republicans on“The Dr. Oz Show” and“Rachael Ray,”
and almost twice as many on “Dr. Phil.” They also advertised at a higher
rate on what Mr. Feltus called “situational comedies” and “contemporary
humor”— slightly edgier comedies like“Outsourced,”“Two and a Half Men
,”“Cougar Town”and“30 Rock.”

Republicans are trying to get men, who are more likely to be Republican
than Democratic, especially the 35- to 64-year-old, middle-age man, who
doesn't watch as much television as women do,”Mr. Feltus said.“So
Republicans are trying to reach Republican men and Republican-leaning men
with sports. Democrats are advertising more to women.”

Evan Tracey, the president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, said that
talk programs were “the opposite of sports.”

Women and especially single women are a very reliable voting bloc for
Democrats,” he said. “That’s why you see a lot of Democrats being aimed
at in those programs. That’s an important turnout audience for them.”

Both Democrats and Republicans seem to love “Dancing with the Stars,”
running a combined 1,773 spots at roughly an equal rate. Despite Bristol
Palin’s star turn, the show’s audience is bipartisan, two-thirds female
and one of the older audiences in prime time — 69 percent are 45 and older,
comKpared with 51 percent of all adults. Older adults are more likely to be
voters, and women generally make up their minds later in a campaign cycle,
Mr. Feltus said, which might account for some of the show’s popularity with
political ad buyers.

The top 25 shows for Republicans and Democrats overlap considerably, as they
both tended to buy time on highly rated programs, according to the Nielsen
data. The list shows a distinct preference for crime and law-related dramas,
with 13 of the top 25 in that category. Only one sitcom, Fox’s “Glee,”
made the cut.

While spending on prime time has increased — on average, 10 percent to 20
percent of political spending will go to that time slot this year — media
buyers like to buy time on news shows. “News is the oceanfront of real
estate politics,” Mr. Tracey said. “If you can afford it, you buy it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/us/politics/31ads.html

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