First come the president’s own words. “America will never be a socialist country,” he says.
Then the voiceover. “You are right, Mr. President,” the spot says, deploying flattery before pivoting to warn that his administration is considering “socialist” price controls on medicines that would thwart innovation and investment.
This would all be unremarkable in the world of political advertising were it not for the fact that the spot was made by Americans for Tax Reform to run only in the West Palm Beach, Fla., television market over Easter weekend when President Trump was staying at Mar-a-Lago.
Media executives and analysts say Republican advertisers are capitalizing on the president’s well-known TV habits to target the viewer-in-chief with personalized appeals.
A review of advertising rates suggests the trend has pushed prices up on shows that frequently provoke a flurry of presidential tweets — more than 400% during “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on Fox Business Network in the Washington, D.C. market, for example.
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Nick Everhart, founder of Content Creative Media & Medium Buying, said: “Whether in the Oval Office or down in Florida at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, you can count on President Trump seeing advertisements on everything from ‘Fox and Friends’ to Lou Dobbs.”
Trump’s cable news consumption is a well-known feature of his unconventional presidency. Aides told the New York Times he watches at least four hours a day — and sometimes up to eight hours.
His Twitter feed frequently fills with insights gleaned from “Fox and Friends” in the morning or Dobbs in the evening.
On Friday, Trump fumed on Twitter against “Weirdo Tom Steyer” after watching a pro-impeachment TV ad paid for by the Democratic billionaire that went out during “Fox & Friends” just before 7 a.m. in the Washington area.
And earlier this month, he tweeted out details of a poll presented by Dobbs that suggested (incorrectly as it turned out) a 55% presidential approval rating.
That feed has given campaigners exactly what they need to target an audience of one, according to Kegan Beran, founder and president of FlexPoint Media.
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“Advertisers are constantly looking for strategic advantages to message their intended audience. Using television, to persuade elected officials, isn’t a new strategy. However, social media feedback from POTUS is something we haven’t seen before,” he said. “Until President Trump and his personally managed Twitter feed, we did not have much tangible evidence of presidential television consumption habits.”
Using cable advertising is just one of the ways lobbyists are learning to zero in on a president who has shaken up the traditional method of how Washington works. Catching his ear at fundraisers and parties at Trump golf clubs or the Mar-a-Lago estate is one way to try to push policy.
Analysis of prices paid by issue advertisers suggests catching his eye on TV may be pushing up prices for slots on the president’s TV.
[Related: Trump taunts CNN over low ratings]
The Lou Dobbs show saw rates for a 30-second ad increase from $75 to $400, or 433%, from 2017 to 2018, according to a quarterly comparison of data collected by Advertising Analytics, an Alexandria, Va.,-based monitoring firm. And “Fox and Friends” recorded a 233% jump. The price covers a very small geographical area that includes the president.
The phenomenon is not confined to conservative media, with smaller jumps recorded for several CNN shows, which analysts say cannot be explained in terms of ratings growth or phase of the political cycle.
Everhart, of Content Creative Media, said it still made for a cost-effective strategy.
In the case of Americans for Tax Reform, it meant spending $10,000 to hit Sunday morning political talk shows and golf programming in the West Palm Beach media market, plus another $43,000 to run ads on ESPN, Golf Channel, and Fox News Channel in the area.
Praising the president in its opening line is a typical technique for such targeted ads.
“From a messaging standpoint, it’s fairly simple. This president is highly susceptible to flattery, so thanking him for what he’s done or will do seems to be the approach yielding the best results,” he said.
Steven Nelson contributed to this report.
