COMMENTARY

With Abortion Rights In The Spotlight, National, Political TV Advertising Expected To Heat Up

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 7 hours ago

Political advertising on TV could take on dramatically different look now that a leaked draft of an upcoming Supreme Court decision seems poised to reverse the landmark ruling on legal abortion.

News of the leaked draft was revealed in a report in Politico.

We can expect much more abortion-related political advertising for the next seven months leading up to the midterm elections in November -- both for Democrat and Republican candidates.

Thirteen states have trigger laws that would automatically make abortion illegal. Nine other states have restrictions on the books that would basically bar lawmakers from protecting abortion rights to to ban abortions after six or eight weeks.

Sixteen other states would have strong abortion rights laws -- but could look to add more protections.

That would total 38 states where political advertising messages could be bought for, against, and everything in between --- marketing that would benefit local TV, radio and other media.

Susan B. Anthony List group, which opposes abortion, is putting $72 million toward elections to support anti-abortion candidates. At the same time, pro-abortion groups are fueling much higher $150 million in ad support for pro-abortion candidates, according to CNN. And this was revealed before the leak of the draft decision.

This comes on top of an expected $5.5 billion or so dollars for local TV stations in 2022, according to Kantar.

What will that creative look like?

In May 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union ran a national TV spot on MSNBC and CNN to “stop abortion bans,” starring actress and influencer Busy Phillips, as states like Texas and Mississippi were slowly ramping up efforts to restrict abortions. Creative included forthcoming anti-abortion legislation.Previous to this political advertising analysts believe the Democrats were murky and vague when it came to what overall political messaging they would have for the midterms.

Now, all that could change. Democrats believe long-term polls on abortion are in their favor -- when it comes to supporting safe and legal abortions. And many political followers believe this could be the start of states beginning to enact other laws restricting other rights for citizens.

Watch your TV for new ad mood swings.