A Brief Media Aside - Election 2008/Steelers Edition

Like most Steelers fans in Pittsburgh, I always turn down the TV sound and turn up Bill & Tunch on the radio. Of course, this saves us from not only the mindless prattling of the network announcers, but also the insipidness of the television commercials.

Of course, for the network market gurus, this means that only half the commercial's impact is made on the audience.

Now, consider if you were the Obama campaign and you wanted to target several hundred thousand potential voters in Southwestern PA. The obvious place to run a campaign ad would be during a Steelers game... but then you have to overcome the problem that I outlined above.

So, I wonder if it was a coincidence or very clever planning that caused the Obama campaign to run an ad ("Prescription Ad") in which most of the message can be gleaned from the text on the screen. If it was clever planning, it was very clever planning, as it allowed the message to get across without needing viewers to switch over from Craig Wolfley's amusing sideline anecdotes.

If it was a coincidence, well, it was certainly something I'd never noticed before.