Well it is here, the 2012 presidential campaign is officially underway with President Obama’s announcement that he will seek reelection. Media is having a field day with the cost of his reelection campaign pegged at $1 billion. That sounds high but maybe for 1 billion dollars you get to avoid a Democratic primary of any consequence.
One billion dollars, that’s $7.61 for every voter who voted in the last presidential election. President Obama received 69,456,897 votes last time.. or if the same people vote for him again a little over $14.38 per vote.
It not just the Democrats, the Republicans have a long list of “I am not officially running yet candidates” and I bet they have to spend something very close to the same number to put forth a viable candidate. Some put the campaign expenses for the presidential race in 2008 at north of 2.5 billion dollars. USA Today reports that total spending for 2012 elections could top 4 billion dollars.
To put that in perspective according to Kantar Media Procter and Gamble spent $3.123 billion in 2010 on its advertising. Ford Motor Company’s marketing costs in the US for 2010 were $1.132 Billion. Kantar’s top 10 list does not include McDonald’s, Coke, Starbucks, Budweiser, John Deere, or countless other household brand names, meaning that each of those spent less than Ford. These companies, with quality products, will spend less on advertising than either the Republicans or Democrats.
Maybe the problem is with the product not the marketing…
David
