McCain Campaign Devoting One Third Of Its Total Ad Spending To Britney-Obama Spot

McCain Campaign Devoting One Third Of Its Total Ad Spending To Britney-Obama Spot

By Greg Sargent - August 1, 2008, 3:41PM

A couple days ago we promised to try to nail down precisely what the McCain campaign is spending on its Britney-Obama ad.

Well, it looks like McCain is sinking a significant proportion of his current ad spending into it.

Evan Tracey, who tracks national ad buys for the Campaign Media Analysis Group, tells us that McCain is spending over $140,000 a day to run the spot. That accounts for roughly a third of his current overall TV ad spending, Tracey says.

The ad is running in McCain's 11 target states -- a list of them is after the jump -- so it's not a huge buy when spread across all those states, though it's certainly not insignificant.

But the fact that a fairly large chunk of his ad spending is going to a spot comparing Obama with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is kind of surprising and seems awfully suggestive. Either the McCain camp thinks it's working, or this is the best they can do on messaging right now.

McCain's 11 target states are Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.