Obama to Advertise During 2008 Olympics

Susan Davis reports on the presidential race. McDonalds, Anheuser-Busch, Barack Obama. What do these things have in common? They’ll all be advertising during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Advertising Age reported Wednesday that Obama’s presidential campaign made a $5 million ad buy during Olympic coverage, which begins with opening ceremonies Aug. 8. The site called it the “first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years” and that it tops “anything that has been done on network TV by presidential candidates in years.” The ad buy includes both network and cable air time—although his campaign did not respond to requests by AdAge for specifics or reasons for the buy. NBC Universal will air 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage. The Obama campaign also ran an ad during the Superbowl in early February.... [read full story]