The Ad Age Presidential Campaign Ad Scorecard is sponsored by The Trade Desk
Editor's note: Here's the 38th installment of the 2016 Presidential Campaign Ad Scorecard. The chart below represents a collaboration between the Ad Age Datacenter -- specifically, Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf -- and Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), together with Ad Age Digital Content Producer Chen Wu. Some context from Simon Dumenco follows. --Ken Wheaton
It wasn't that long ago (read: September) when Presidential campaign ad spending was actually trailing Senate campaign ad spending -- mostly because of Donald Trump. Not only did Trump think, for much of the race, that "I don't even need commercials," but his campaign and pro-Trump PACs simply had a lot less money to spend than the Hillary Clinton campaign and pro-Clinton PACs.
But now, suddenly, not only is Donald Trump apparently putting more of his own money into ad spending (reportedly at least $10 million), but new pro-Trump PAC money has been rushing in, including from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Cubs owner Joe Rickets.
The bottom line: In the last 10 days, TV and radio ad spending by Team Trump (the Trump campaign plus pro-Trump PACs) and Team Clinton (the Clinton campaign plus pro-Clinton PACs) has surged by $55.7 million combined.
Team Trump's increase: $24.2 million.
Team Clinton's increase: $31.5 million.
That's as of noon today, as ad-booking activity was still in progress -- which means the number seems destined to spike even more.
Where's the money going? Check out our interactive maps, below; hover over (or on mobile, tap on) the background color of a state to see the spending increases in each targeted state.
One other note: Presidential campaign TV and radio ad spending (including all the dropouts and the primary season) now exceeds $1 billion.
