TV Ads Work – Denver Post

Jeremy Meyer reports that nearly $13 million has been spent in 2014 on 23,000 political ads. About two-thirds came from “independent” outside groups. The amount spent on TV continues to climb ($10 million in 2010) in spite of fragmentation of television and many alternatives.

The reason is:

“TV persuades,” said political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “If Sen. [Mark] Udall wants to bombard suburban women, that is where he and his allies will spend. For a mass audience, if you’ve got a good message, you are doing TV.”

Ciruli also keeps predicting an end to the TV ad gravy train.

“My theory is that both the expense and the saturation will cause it to lower its persuasive power,” he said. “People will come up with ways to avoid it. ... But it hasn’t moved an inch so far. There is even more money being put into it.”