Georgians have faced a constant stream of aggressive advertising from the presidential candidates, and the number of ads will only continue to grow in the coming weeks.
So far this year, both campaigns have aired about 145,000 ads on television screens across the state, and more than 64,000 of those ads are attacks on the other candidate. And more are coming.
From now until Election Day, Georgians will be blasted with $55 million in presidential political advertisements across their television screens, car radios and cellphones. About $34 million of that is coming from Vice President Kamala Harris and committees that support her, with former President Donald Trump and his allies accounting for $21 million, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact.
As Election Day nears, the pace of spending has picked up. These final three weeks of bookings account for 21% of all ads for the presidential election in the state this year. Roughly $214 million worth of ads have aired so far, with Democrats spending $22.8 million more than Republicans.
Georgians are more likely to encounter ads that disparage the other candidate on broadcast TV. Since the beginning of this year, 44% of all broadcast ads are negative. An additional 42% of broadcast ads are contrast ads, which highlight the positives of one candidate and negatives of the other. Positive ads compose just under 15% of broadcasts.
“Over recent history, negative advertising has become much more prevalent than positive advertising,” said David Schweidel, a political marketing expert at Emory University who has researched negative political ads. “What we were seeing is that the negative ads were able to move the needle as far as getting voters to show up.”
About 99% of presidential broadcast TV ads funded by Republicans are negative or contrast ads. They have aired just 633 positive ads so far this year. For Democrats, 72% of their ads are negative or contrast ads. They have aired over 20,000 positive ads.
Schweidel said the higher number of positive ads this election cycle may come from the Harris campaign working to define her as a candidate and introduce her to voters late in the cycle.
Leigh McCune, a 67-year-old art teacher from DeKalb County, said that the majority of ads she sees are positive ads for Harris on social media.
“I find them encouraging and uplifting, and I think that’s useful for most people,” she said.
Republicans have aired more than 51,000 negative ads and 21,000 contrast ads so far this year. They have aired only 633 positive ads. Democrats have aired over 13,000 negative ads, more than 40,000 contrast ads and over 20,000 positive ads.
AdImpact classifies ads as negative and positive with input from human reviewers of the ad content. The ad is considered negative if only the opponent is mentioned. Positive ads mention only the candidate they support but are not necessarily positive in tone. Contrast ads include both candidates.
Republicans have aired the most negative ads, covering topics such as crime, the economy, housing and LGBTQ rights. Republican contrast ads focus on the economy, Social Security, LGBTQ rights, immigration and the budget. Positive ads target character, Social Security and jobs.
For Democrats, negative ads highlight abortion, character and the military. Democratic contrast ads focus on health care, taxation, energy, character and crime. Positive ads message on crime, character, health care and the economy.
Dennis Dean, a 70-year-old voter in Haralson County, voted early this week for Trump. He said that he sees most political ads on TV and does not think the negative ads are effective in getting people to vote.
“Most people know what they stand for anyway, and how they feel about all the topics set up for discussion like the economy and immigration, abortion, so on and so forth,” he said. “I think everybody pretty much got in their mind how they feel about that stuff and who would be the best candidate.”
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