Former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg has purchased a 60-second commercial slot during Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIV next month, a rare move for a presidential campaign given the outrageous cost for advertising on TV’s most-watched show.
Spokespeople for both Fox and Bloomberg’s campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
“The biggest point is getting under Trump’s skin,” Michael Frazier, a spokesman for the Bloomberg campaign, told The New York Times, which first reported the ad buy. “The ad is part of Mike’s strategy of running a national campaign that focuses on states where the general election will be decided, parts of the country that are often overlooked.” Frazier did not say how much the campaign spent on the ad, only that it was “market rate,” according to the Times.
Fox had previously stated that 30-second commercial spots for the Super Bowl were going for north of $5 million, which would put Bloomberg’s ad buy at more than $10 million.
The Super Bowl will be held Sunday, Feb. 2. The first primary is set for Feb. 3 with the Iowa Caucus, followed by the New Hampshire on Feb. 11, Nevada (Feb. 22) and South Carolina (Feb. 29). The Super Bowl is annually watched by more than 100 million viewers (though last year’s game fellow below that mark on TV).
The first week of Bloomberg’s candidacy included more than $30 million in TV ads from Nov. 25-Dec. 3, the most ever for most ad dollars ever spent by a political candidate in a single week. It far outpaced the old record of $24 million by Barack Obama during the last week of his 2012 re-election campaign.
Bloomberg, a media mogul whose net worth Forbes has pegged at $54 billion, is largely self-financing his long-shot presidential campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap