Clinton makes big television ad buy during Olympics

After Americans watch swimmer Katie Ledecky win Olympic gold in the 800-meter freestyle - as she's almost certain to do - will they react more favorably to a political commercial from Hillary Clinton?

That may be what the Democratic presidential nominee is hoping by spending millions of dollars on ads during the Olympic Games starting Friday and continuing through Aug. 21 in Rio de Janeiro.

Hillary for America has also purchased more than 70 TV spots worth more than $32,000 running through the weekend on KWWL-TV, Eastern Iowa's NBC affiliate televising the Olympics.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has not yet run any TV ads for the general election, Roll Call reported.

'The Olympics do provide an extraordinary way to reach out to a large number of people,” said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.

More than 217 million viewers watched the 2012 London Games over 17 days, including an average 31 million viewing in prime time each night, Adweek reported.

The London Games prime-time TV audience skewed female and more than half of nearly 4,000 millennial women surveyed by Influenster, a product discovery and reviews platform, said they plan to watch at least some coverage from Rio, according to Adweek.

'I would argue that's another opportunity for Hillary Clinton to reintroduce herself,” Bystrom said. Clinton is the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. party.

But candidates advertising during the Olympics need to ditch the mudslinging because negative campaign ads can kill the Olympic spirit.

'One very effective thing is to get a positive aura from the Olympics to carry over to your brand,” said Bill Hedgcock, a University of Iowa associate professor of marketing. Check out 'Rule Yourself,” Under Armour's pre-Olympics commercial of champion swimmer Michael Phelps, to see what Hedgcock means by 'aura.”

'If you have an ad with negative things, people could be pretty disappointed,” Hedgcock said. 'You rain on their parade.”

However, negativity didn't necessarily hurt Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee for president, when he ran his 'Celebrity” ad during the 2008 Summer Games.

The ad comparing then-candidate Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton had an effectiveness rating of 90 percent, according to an analysis by Nielsen IAG reported by Adweek.

Because national ads during the Olympics are expensive - 30-second spots are estimated at $100,000 - political candidates might focus on local broadcasts in swing states, including Virginia, Ohio and Florida, pundits told Adweek last month.

'Iowa is a swing state, but pretty low in terms of flipping the election,” Bystrom added.

Clinton's $32,000 ad buy on KWWL through Monday is $11,000 higher than her total spending with the station in a comparable period in July for a similar number of ads.

'She spent a little more to target Olympic programming that wasn't on the weekend before,” KWWL General Sales Manager John Huff said.

The Clinton campaign also has spent $50,210 on 56 spots on WHO-TV, the Des Moines NBC affiliate, according to the station's public disclosure file.

No other Iowa candidates for U.S. House or Senate had so far purchased ads on KWWL during the Olympics, but may still do so.

A cheaper way to connect to Olympic viewers is through social media, Bystrom said, so we can expect to see political candidates congratulating athletes on Twitter and other platforms.