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The Midterm elections prompted a flood of political advertising during the month of October. Political parties, political campaigns and political groups saturated the airwaves and exposed American TV viewers to almost 1.48 million political ads, up from 1.41 million political ads that aired during the 2008 general election, according to The Nielsen Company.
Political ads were especially prevalent on local TV in 128 U.S. media Markets. Surprisingly, Ohio was bombarded with the most political ads. Cleveland topped the list with 29,689 political ads and Columbus trailed a close second with 24,693 political ads. Nielsen reports that about one out of every four paid TV ads that aired on local Cleveland stations was placed by a political candidate or outside political group. Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; Seattle, WA; Champaign-Springfield, IL; Reno, NV; Denver, CO; Orlando, FL and West Palm, FL round out the top ten that saw the most political ads.
