In key states, voters under a deluge of political ads

(New York) Twenty-two spots in three hours! The screens of millions of Americans living in key presidential election states are being flooded with political ads, much to the dismay of viewers.

Eight pro-Harris or anti-Trump advertisements, six anti-Harris or pro-Trump advertisements, and another eight devoted to local elections: such is the result of an evening on the local NBC channel for Philadelphia and its surroundings, in the The state of Pennsylvania, a few days before an extraordinarily close election.

Pennsylvania is particularly targeted by this advertising avalanche, because it is one of the seven most contested states which will decide the election.

The succession of spots is sometimes dizzying, moving seamlessly from a damning message for Kamala Harris to another, which sings her praises.

“I started yelling at my television to stop showing the same political ads over and over again,” wrote an author, Aimée Davis, on the social network X.

For blogger Brad Warthen, “they are depressing”. “I love watching baseball, but I could do without commercials,” he says.

Like billboards, newspaper ads and targeted online campaigns, television ads remain at the heart of candidates’ strategies.

According to Emarketer, by the end of the 2024 elections, $12.32 billion will have been spent on political ads, compared to $9.57 billion in 2020. And $7 billion of that spending will be on television ads, an increase of 7.5% compared to 2020.

Culture Wars

In the United States, major television networks, such as NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox, cover the entire country, but they also operate local branches that sell their own advertising space, allowing candidates to target geographic areas and audiences. specific demographic groups.

On the NBC screen in Philadelphia, a cinematic clip paints a dire picture of the American economy, world conflicts, crime and political violence, before Donald Trump appears, walking like a savior facing on camera.

A few commercials later, a pro-Harris spot features a steelworker proclaiming “Elon Musk votes for his money, I vote for mine”, an allusion to the boss of Tesla, SpaceX and Donald Trump’s campaign.

All ballots are affected. David McCormick, the Republican candidate for Senate in a crucial Pennsylvania constituency, is the target of a pro-Democratic ad that features health professionals attacking his anti-abortion positions.

His rival, Democratic Senator Bob Casey, is accused in a pro-Republican spot of being responsible for the illegal spread of fentanyl, a powerful opiate that causes tens of thousands of overdoses each year in the United States. To portray it as too progressive, another ad highlights its support for the rights of transgender people, by showing an athlete participating in a women’s athletics competition referred to as a man by the voice-over.

Many similar advertisements, against abortion or the rights of transgender people, have been broadcast, witness to the American “culture wars” on social issues.

“It’s dehumanizing. “It takes a topic…and treats it like it’s a scandalous position,” laments Parker Molloy, an author and blogger who writes about gender issues.

A crude ad from a pro-life campaign prompted local stations to explain that federal law prohibits them from “blocking or modifying” any content.