Can’t Wait until November 7th

You know its bad when a marketer and Political Science major (college) – me- is completely fed up with the election. I can not wait until Wednesday. It’s not even noon and I’ve had three political calls, one person at the door and 6 mailers from political parties. I can’t even watch TV, because almost every commercial is political in nature. The only reason I’m not getting emails or social media messages is because I’ve either spammed them or blocked them.

Keep in mind, I love marketing.  I live and breathe it.  But, we (U.S. businesses) have standards.  We have opt-out lists, we remove people from call lists, we stop mailing people if they request it.  Our goal is to inspire and motivate consumers to do something-buy, sign up, attend, etc.  All of these things do not seem to apply for political advertising.  How did we let that happen?

Honestly, whatever side you may be on, after what’s gone on over the last year, can you really say you are proud of our current electoral process? Obama has spent $347 million dollars in advertising, 85% of it on negative ads. Romney has spent $386 million dollars on ads, 91% of them negative. For those counting, that’s $733 million dollars. Plus, the Super PAC’s, which estimates say put this over a billion dollars. Gone, poof, up in smoke, since that money mostly went for air time on TV, radio, and web. Not one job created. No sales tax paid. Sometimes its hard to imagine how much money that is. Here’s some other things that much money could buy:

1) Instagram

2) The entire New York Times, says Reuters’ Jack Shafer

3) 800 of AOL’s Microsoft’s patents

4) The cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease

5) 68 Lebron Jameses , 40 Kobe Bryants, and 83 Albert Pujolses

6) 25.6 million containers of Luxury Ramen Noodles

7) 60,900 Ten Ounce Gold Bar Door Stops

8) 1,562 Castawayesque 20 Acre Polynesian Islands

9) A 50% stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers

10) 125 million partridges in a pear tree