Can spending billions on political ads actually win elections?

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

Business, News

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By Election Day, campaigns and PACs will spend an estimated $9.7 billion on ads. One of our listeners wants to know: Does flooding the airwaves even move the needle? Where’s the saturation point? We’ll do our best to answer on this Whaddaya Wanna Know Wednesday. Plus, your questions about student loan forgiveness, the poverty line and regional Halloween traditions.

Here are links to what we talked about today:

“Social Security recipients to get their biggest cost-of-living raise in over 40 years” from Marketplace
“How many people are really facing poverty in the U.S.?” from Marketplace
“Campaigns spend over $6.4 billion on ads for 2022 elections, making race one of the most expensive ever” from CNBC
“Do Political Ads Even Work?” from The New Republic
“In Midterm TV Ad Wars, Sticker Shock Costs Republicans” from The New York Times
“This Ad’s for You (Not Your Neighbor)” from The New York Times
“Federal Student Loan Forgiveness: Your Questions Answered” from U.S. News & World Report
“Halloween Is More Funny Than Scary In St. Louis” from NPR

If you’ve got a question about the economy, business or technology, let us know. We’re at [email protected] or leave us a message at 508-U-B-SMART.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And you know, I got these expenses to do.
0:03.6	Well, yeah, I do do, but I'm not gonna do them today.
0:07.0	Okay.
0:10.0	Hello, I'm Kimberly Adams.
0:14.8	Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.
0:18.3	Kai is off today, but joining me is Marketplace Reporter, and the person who apparently also
0:23.6	doesn't do her expenses is Samantha Fields.
0:26.4	Welcome back.
0:27.4	And guilty.
0:31.4	Thank you.
0:32.4	It's great to be back with you, Kimberly.
0:33.4	For this, what do you want to know Wednesday, where we answer questions that you are listeners
0:35.5	have sent in?
0:36.5	If you have a question about the economy, business, or tech, you can send it to us at MakeMeSmart
0:41.3	at Marketplace.org, or you can leave us a voicemail at 508UB Smart.
0:48.2	Okay, Sam.
0:49.2	Our first question is for you, and it comes from listener Lori in California, and it's
0:53.8	an email, so I shall read it.
0:55.9	I have a question related to the coming increase in Social Security payments.
1:00.8	People who are very low income and or disabled often receive other benefits that are based
1:05.9	on income levels, Medicare, Obamacare subsidies, Section 8 housing, Food and Energy subsidies,
1:11.7	etc.
	...

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