2008 General Campaign TV Spots - Political Campaigns -The Messages and Their Analysis - William Benoit

<< ' 08 Presidential Campaign

20o8 General Campaign Television Advertisements

Analysis of 2008 general campaign television spots is still in progress. However, our results so far indicate that this could be one of the most negative campaigns ever, rivaled only by the negativity of Eisenhower's 1952 campaign, in which 69% of the themes in his ads were negative.

Functions

	Acclaims	Attacks	Defenses
Obama (76 ads)	125 (31%)	273 (68%)	1 (0.3%)
McCain (65 ads)	131 (38%)	214 (62%)	1 (0.3%)
Total	256 (34%)	487 (65%)	2 (0.3%)
Obama 30 min ad	120 (82%)	26 (18%)	0
1952-2004	3454 (57%)	2339 (40%)	71 (1%)

Topics

	Policy	Character
Obama (76 ads)	249 (61%)	149 (39%)
McCain (65 ads)	186 (54%)	159 (46%)
Total	435 (59%)	308 (41%)
Obama 30 min ad	80 (55%)	66 (45%)
1952-2004	3581 (62%)	2212 (38%)