This is one in a series of stories that are part of Swing County, Swing State, a collaborative project between lehighvalleylive.com and nj.com that explores Northampton County’s critical role in the upcoming presidential election.
At 11:01 a.m. on 6ABC, just before the start of “The View,” the screen went black and flashed in bright red the word “ATTENTION,” which certainly grabbed mine. What followed was a rather straightforward television commercial about voting, how you can do it this year and its importance. Nothing truly out of the ordinary compared to the dozens of texts, calls, letters and other forms of correspondence those across the Lehigh Valley have been receiving for the last few weeks and months.
However, the end of the ad included a bit of a surprise: “I’m Joe Biden, and I approve this message.”
The Biden-funded voting ad is just one of the several TV ads the presidential nominee has circulating on the Philadelphia market. And since the Lehigh Valley is grouped into that market, falling in the realm of 6ABC, CBS3, FOX 29 and NBC10, Biden’s prominent presence in the market is on full display.
President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has ads playing far less frequently, with Biden spots outnumbering Trump spots five or six to one. At least that’s what it felt like to me — I spent much of Thursday parked in front of my TV, laptop and phone, watching those four networks plus the Lehigh Valley’s WFMZ-TV 69 like a hawk, on the prowl for political ads. “Judge Judy” and “The Price Is Right” were firmly on mute, but the moment they cut to commercial, I was locked in. In many ways, it was like an eight-hour Super Bowl.
Biden’s dominance on the broadcast wasn’t exactly surprising. According to an Oct. 13 report from NPR, $195.7 million is being spent by both campaigns and their allies on TV spots in Pennsylvania, the second-most of the six swing states where the most money is being spent (Florida is at the top, and Pennsylvania is followed by Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Arizona). Biden and his supporting groups are spending $121.5 million in the Keystone State, while Trump and his backers are spending $74.2 million.
“But Connor, if they’re spending all this money on ads, what are the ads about?”
Well, dear reader, I’m glad you asked — if you hadn’t, I would have just watched eight hours of TV for almost nothing, except to witness someone win the largest cash prize in “The Price is Right” history; he was from New Jersey.
As anyone who’s gone outside, or actively avoided going outside, in the last seven months could guess, the hottest topic among political ads was the coronavirus pandemic, the government response to it and the toll its taken on the United States, both emotionally and financially. Biden’s COVID-19-centric ads have been critical of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, pointing to his focus on helping the stock markets, not families. But the president’s focused largely on “getting through it together,” and the ads cited his own experience dealing with COVID-19 in recent weeks. However, the Trump ad that seemed to get the most circulation was a very recent one that made some news of its own; the ad ends with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.' coronavirus rockstar, saying “I can’t imagine anybody could be doing more.” But according to the New York Times, Fauci said that the quote used was taken extremely out of context.
Trump’s other advertisements have focused on his relationship with Black voters and his claims that Biden plans to raise taxes and employ a cost-prohibitive climate plan.
Biden’s other ads focused on his past experience in the White House leading the United States out of the late-2000s recession, his commitment to affordable healthcare and social security. Some weren’t explicitly attack ads, but have included subtle digs at the current president with quips like “it’s not about his ego.”
While there were no ads for Vice President Mike Pence in sight, there was a Kamala Harris one that ran several times during 69 News broadcasts, paid for by the Women Vote! Super PAC. It posits that if the Biden-Harris ticket does win, with a woman of Jamaican and Indian descent in office, anyone can see themselves becoming president one day.
Women Vote! is just one of the many political groups contributing ads to both campaigns. Two Super PACs, the Biden-backing Future Forward USA Action and the pro-Trump America First Action, are among the top spenders on advertisements outside the campaigns themselves. Both had ads circulating the Philadelphia market. From strictly a quality perspective, the AFA ad was certainly one of the worst-produced I’ve seen — centered on four people at a bar complaining about Biden, the actors spoke with about as much conviction and enthusiasm as a DMV worker at 4 p.m.
There were, of course, political ads for other state officials that’ll be on the 2020 ticket, but what was most interesting about those ads was that their support of either of the presidential candidates was weaponized against them in attack ads from their opponents.
Having watched so many political commercials in one day, it was hard not to see the competition and politics in other innocuous advertisements. I was quite alarmed by PictSweet Farms running a spot that put out an attack on seemingly all other vegetables. But maybe after Nov. 3, the airways will clear up again, and we can return to CGI lizards, Shaquille O’Neal and good old American consumerism.
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Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.