Candidates Get the Picture, Turn On to Cable TV Ads

Democrat Fred Smoller is a college professor who doesn’t plan to spend more than a couple thousand dollars on his long-shot campaign against incumbent Assemblyman John R. Lewis of Orange. But with just $55, Smoller was able to bash his Republican opponent almost every day for two weeks on local cable television.

“It was a fantastic opportunity,” Smoller said. “I think the very fact that I was on television gave my campaign a level of credibility. It’s the way a poor man can get access to people.”

Throughout California and the nation, cable television has become a new medium for low-budget campaigns previously limited to lawn signs and bumper stickers.

Some of the commercials, made in back yards and living rooms, are far from the slick Wall Street images on network television. Yorba Linda Councilman Henry W. Wedaa’s message, for instance, shows his granddaughter coloring a crayon picture of the city, then looking up at the camera for the tag line: “I love you, Grandpa.”

But even mid-size campaigns and the multimillion-dollar giants with plenty of money and the expertise to pick the most effective tools for reaching voters have turned to cable advertising this year, often for the first time.

Congressional candidates, especially in Los Angeles and Orange counties, unable or unwilling to pay the huge cost of broadcast television commercials in the nation’s largest media market, have moved aggressively to cable companies serving a viewership more tailored to their districts.

And some statewide candidates are supplementing their traditional television advertising with cable commercials in search of viewers who have fled network programs for the more specialized subscription channels.

“I am truly one of the great cable proponents,” said David Bienstock, the media buyer for Republican Pete Wilson’s gubernatorial campaign. “We are probably the biggest cable advertiser in California.”

Bienstock estimates that the campaign has dedicated about 5% of its television budget to cable.

Nobody is predicting that a cable candidate will score a major upset. In fact, there is disagreement among campaign strategists about whether cable helps at all. Even those using cable extensively cannot point to conclusive evidence that it will produce results.

But clearly, cable is another weapon in the campaign arsenal, and one that has intrigued many strategists with its possibilities. Cable television is a medium in its political adolescence--shaky and experimental, but with a bright future.

Could it revolutionize local politics and turn the small-town mayor’s race into another version of the 30-second sound-bite campaigns that run statewide? Maybe. But others say it could also enhance the communication between local office seekers and voters, who might otherwise know nothing more about a candidate than the color of his or her signs.

This is the first election in which more than half the state’s homes are connected to cable, industry officials say. And it’s the first campaign cycle in which some cable companies have the technology to insert local commercials in their national programs.

The use of cable television by campaigns is up at least 50% since the last general election in 1988, said Robert Alter of the Cable Advertising Bureau in New York. Alter advises political campaigns of the possibilities of cable.

“It’s a learning experience for the political community because it’s new and different,” he said. “There is a demographic selectivity and a geographic selectivity.”

Still, for most campaigns, the argument for cable advertising is economics.

“The reason I’m using it is because it’s so inexpensive,” said Alan Hoffenblum, campaign manager for Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder. “I don’t know how effective it is, but for $5,000 it’s worth trying to find out.”

City council candidates, many running their own races with little professional political experience, face even more guesswork. In Yorba Linda, when Wedaa and another council member started their commercials, challenger John Gullixson figured he’d better, too.

“I don’t know if it’s helping or not, to be very honest,” Gullixson said. “Actually, I was scared to death of it. We’re hanging all out there--lumps, bumps and everything else.”

But for a week of commercials shown three times a day, Gullixson’s campaign paid only $99. That’s less than half the cost of a quarter-page ad in the local newspaper, he said.

“You know the power of the tube,” he said. “I figured I’d forget the newspaper ad.”

Even for state and federal campaigns, the low price of cable advertising is attractive. For half the cost of one letter to voters in the average-size Assembly district, most candidates can appear on cable television several times a day for a month.

In Orange, where Smoller is seeking an Assembly seat, the price was $5.50 for a 30-second cable television commercial. Smoller was so happy with the first two weeks that he spent another $350 for the last three weeks of the campaign, forcing incumbent Lewis to do the same.

Lewis was not available for comment.

“What this has done is allow people who may be challenging a longtime incumbent to have a new medium to communicate with voters, and it’s very effective,” said Michael Galizio, chief of staff for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco). He is on leave to work on state Democratic campaigns. “I’ve said this to a lot of people running against incumbents this year: buy cable,” Galizio said.

Still, some consultants believe that the money is wasted if the messages do not reach the people who will vote.

Republican political consultant Tony Marsh, working on several state and federal campaigns around the country, including two congressional races in Riverside County, considers cable advertising “unreliable.”

“Generally, whenever I buy TV I’ll put a little cable money in because it’s inexpensive,” he said. “But I really don’t know with any precision who I’m reaching.

“I suppose in certain city council races it might help because they are such low visibility that anything you do is a benefit. But I think putting up 2,000 lawn signs might be more effective.”

The cable television industry has tried recently to attract political advertisers with extensive demographic surveys of its viewers. But while surveys can identify what kind of viewer watches a particular program, they often cannot say how many watched on a given night and particularly not with the same precision available from broadcast stations.

One of the biggest boosts for political advertising on cable this year, however, was Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. For several weeks it was a breaking story that drew many people to television’s 24-hour news station, Cable News Network.

The demographic studies have also found that CNN watchers are prime targets for campaigns. They are the most well informed and the most likely to vote.

“Cable for political campaigns is most effective now because of the Middle East,” one political media buyer said. “Prior to that, it was questionable.”

Others are more confident of cable’s promise. Bienstock, who has been the media buyer for Wilson since Wilson’s days as San Diego mayor, now operates a nationwide company geared toward political cable television advertising.

“The only reason in my mind that cable is used a little sparingly is that the ratings on which we base everything that we do are really still in their infancy,” Bienstock said.

“If you call me the day after the election and we won, I’ll say cable helped,” he said. “I’m really smart, if we win.”

Whatever thoughts political officials have about cable advertising this year, most agree it will become more popular and more sophisticated in the future--even as soon as 1992.

Cable television has the potential to combine some of the advantages of video advertising and targeted mail. It’s called “narrow casting” and it means that unlike broadcast television stations which show a variety of programs to general audiences, cable audiences have more specific interests that are easy to identify.

For example, a candidate with a no-new-taxes pledge might seek advertising on Financial News Network. Or a commercial about family values might be aired on a religious program. In the Anaheim City Council race, where a proposed sports arena is an issue, candidates have made commercials for cable’s all sports channel, ESPN.

“This is an incredibly effective tool,” Galizio said. “People just don’t understand it yet.”