Political Ads: Overpriced, Inefficient, Essential [1]

Rolling Stone

POSTED: August 14, 12:35 PM ET | By Daniel Adler [2]

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The 2012 political cycle is well on its way to being the most money-drenched of all time, as well as the most negative, with spending on TV ads – mostly of the scorched-earth variety – expected to top $3 billion.

That’s serious money, even by today’s lurid standards. But what are the campaigns (and increasingly, outside "Super PACs") getting for their money? Not a whole lot, if you believe the latest conventional wisdom. "Three months from Election Day, some political strategists already are asking if more TV ads really will make a difference," the Wall Street Journal noted recently [3], while NPR posed the question [4], "Do Negative Ads Make A Difference?" The answer: "Not so much."

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