as seen on TV
Michael Bloomberg is on track to outspend Obama's entire 2012 campaign — all before Super Tuesday
Michael Bloomberg's billionaire status is impossible to hide.
The former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate may have entered the 2020 race months late, but he's more than making up for it with his excessive ad spending. Bloomberg's campaign is projected to spend upwards of $400 million by March, beating out what former President Barack Obama spent on his entire 2012 reelection bid, The New York Times reports via data from Advertising Analytics.
Bloomberg has barely been running for president for a month, and yet has already spent $128 million on TV ads and another $18 million for ads on Google and Facebook. That puts him on track to hit $400 million by the Super Tuesday primaries early next year — Bloomberg is focusing on those contests instead of the first four primaries and caucuses because of how late he entered the race. $400 million is just about how much Obama spent throughout his entire general election campaign in 2012. Bloomberg's ad spending also trumps President Trump's, at least on Google and YouTube, where he's spent more in the past month on ads than Trump has all year.
All that money isn't just pushing a universal message, either. As the Times notes, Bloomberg's campaign said it "produced 160 versions of its ads on social media alone, reaching 15.5 million people in the first two weeks of December." One ad features a man from Pennsylvania noting how Trump is focusing on the state while other Democrats are apparently ignoring it, while others focus on similar swing states such as Wisconsin.
Bloomberg has yet to see a major poll bump from his spending spree, so we'll just have to wait and see if money really can buy an election.