The term “paid media” refers to the expenditure of hard money by presidential campaigns or independent groups to support or oppose the election of a candidate. Nowadays, paid media includes campaign ads broadcast over the radio, broadcast television, cable television, video games, and the Internet. Paid media also includes the purchase of billboard space, Internet banners, Internet billboards, and online pop-up ads.
While the campaign organizations of presidential candidates are the most visible sources of paid media spending, independent advocacy groups have become increasingly involved in sponsoring ads as well. The campaign finance reforms of the 1970s limited candidates to spending hard money donations, and, as a consequence, political parties raised soft money to fund ads to promote their nominee (often, these included negative advertising). The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 put an end to the unlimited soft money donations to political parties, leaving parties with only hard money to spend on their electioneering activities. Despite these limits, parties were still able to finance a variety of campaign ads, and they were joined in their efforts by an onslaught of independent advocacy groups, particularly 527 groups. In 2010, the Supreme Court relaxed the limits on independent spending in federal elections, and 527 groups and 501(c) groups grew at an astonishing rate, spending untold sums on the 2010 midterms. In the Campaign of 2012, these independent groups narrowed their focus from broad ideological goals to the promotion of specific candidates, essentially becoming an unregulated financing arm of candidates’ campaigns. These super PACs may soon constitute the bulk of paid media spending in federal elections.
Paid media will likely continue to serve presidential candidates in the years ahead. However, it is possible that other forms of digital media, such as Twitter, or the next unseen innovation on the Internet, could lessen the need for the purchase of expensive time over the airwaves or a share of cyberspace. Given the nature of campaign rhetoric, there will always be a need to use the media to deliver a candidate’s message and image, but the importance of hard money paid media has already changed, and it could continue to do so in the near future.
See also Campaign Ads; Negative Campaigning
Hendricks, John Allen, and Dan Schill. Presidential Campaigning and Social Media: An Analysis of the 2012 Campaign. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Mentzer, Bruce. “A Political Media Buying Strategy for Using Cable.” Campaigns and Elections (June 2000): 82–83.
Plouffe, David. The Audacity to Win. New York: Viking, 2009.