For those of you who dont know but want something hilarious to laugh at, Billionaire Dem candidate Bob Steyer, who recently entered the crowded Dem field later than anyone else, has been using his massive personal wealth to fund his political campaign, doing so at such a crazy ass degree that he has outspent every other Dem candidate COMBINED on tv ads in the first four primary states, which do not begin voting for another four months.
Steyer has spent approximately $48 million of his own wealth on about 53,000 tv ads in the first four primary states. 20,000 have those aired in just the state of Iowa alone. This is about 8 times as many TV ads as the rest of the field COMBINED, but theres an interesting detail to this story that could easily be overlooked.
Steyer's financial fuckery aside, the Wall Street Journal article (first link) also includes a table showing the Dem candidates who have purchased the most ads on television. In first place by an almost retardedly large margin is Steyer with over 53,300 tv ads, compared to Buttigieg in second place at just under 1,700.... Where the list gets interesting though is the noticable LACKING of big name candidates who are polling incredibly well.... Of the candidates with the most ads purchased on television, none of the top 5 have regularly polled above 7% (Buttigieg), and a majority have never polled higher than 3% (Steyer, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, and Michael Bennett)
Biden comes in at 6th place with almost 900 tv ads (remember, Steyer has purchased 53 THOUSAND), while Bernie comes in at 8th at 730. Elizabeth Warren is not even on the list, and you can tell she didnt release any ads because the list does include Joe Sestak, who only has 10.
With Biden, Warren, and Sanders far and away being the leaders of the race with what must be 75% of all votes, all three of them put together have aired fewer tv ads in early states combined (about 1,600) then Buttigieg and Steyer, and the big 3 almost aired fewer ads combined then Tulsi Gabbard or John Delaney (1,400 + 1,300 respectively)
With Steyer polling less than 4% in a majority of early states that he has spent a literal fuckton of money on, and with the hyper-big candidates combined being outspent on tv ads by political nobodies, all evidence indicates that (at least for primary elections) tv advertising is just a giant money pit that doesnt improve performance. Candidates who have spent massive amount of money on tv advertising are still at the bottom of the barrel in polling, while big candidates have hardly spent any money on ads and still get 20% or more percent of the vote.