Obama Ad Biden Disowned Aired Only Six Times

by Josh Gerstein
Tue, 23 Sep 2008 at 12:52 PM

An Obama campaign ad which poked fund at Senator McCain over his inability to use computers and was disowned yesterday by the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Senator Biden, aired a grand total of six times, according to a private firm which tracks advertising across the country. "It aired 6 times in the DC market," Evan Tracey of TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG told The New York Sun today.

Mr. Biden drew headlines for his comments in a CBS interview yesterday calling the ad "terrible" and saying he would not have allowed it to air if he knew about it in advance. The ad touched, perhaps inadvertently, on a sensitive subject, namely that Mr. McCain has trouble typing because of injuries he suffered while a prisoner in the Vietnam War.

In a press release on September 12, the Obama campaign said the "out of touch" ad and another spot at the same time "will air on national cable and in key states across the country beginning today." Spokesmen for the Obama campaign did not respond to questions about why the ad barely aired.

It's not clear if the Obama camp pulled the ad down because of objections from Mr. Biden or others. Politico reported last week that the ad was among a series of spots released by both the Obama and McCain campaigns primarily to garner coverage on cable news, while rarely, if ever, airing as a commercial. The Politico article said the spot was not on the air two days after it came out, but was vague about whether the ad ever aired.