The Obamercial

I didn't sit down and watch the infomercial last night, but my friend Charles did and had some pretty interesting thoughts.

I continue to be surprised at how relatively cheap it was for Obama to buy up all that ad time. At around $1 million a pop for the 30-minute spot, that comes to $33,333 a minute or $16,667 for every thirty seconds. For the 2007-2008 TV season, a 30-second ad on CBS cost $97,000 during the 8:00 hour, and that's at the low-end of prime-time pricing.

I'm sure there are blog posts or articles out there that can somehow justify the rock-bottom rate that the campaign received, but it sure seems odd to me. CBS for one said they would offer a comparable deal to McCain should he be so inclined, though with sweeps starting tonight I find it tough to believe everyone would be so generous unless compelled by law.

Though I for one wouldn't want to sit through thirty minutes of McCain, either. I did that for the convention speech and that was enough for me.