Big Bird Ad Flies to Top of Political Chart
On this week's WSJ Presidential Ads Chart, the anti-Romney Big Bird spot dominates, coming in at number one with over 3 million views. Big Bird by the Obama team takes advantage of Romney's comments made during the first presidential debate, when he said that he would cut funding to PBS. The ad was likely fueled along by Sesame Street's request that the ad be taken down. There are more than 30 copies and derivatives of the original clip, a sign of virality.
Coming in second place is a new RNC ad, using footage from the vice presidential debates last week. In Laughing at the Issues, Paul Ryan is speaking, while Vice President Joe Biden smiles and laughs. The spot generated 1.3 million views this week.
Elsewhere on the chart is Freedom to Succeed by Thomas Peterffy, the founder of Interactive Brokers. In the ad, Petterffy claims that the US is edging towards socialism, which is the reason why he is voting Republican this election. Peterffy grabs eighth place with 260,000 views.
The Most-Watched Presidential Ads of the Week
| Rank | Last Week's Rank | Candidate / Supporting Group | Campaign | Current Week's Views* | % Change in Views |
Watch
|
|---|
|
1
|
New
|
Barack Obama
|
Big Bird
|
3,861,333
|
NEW
|
|
|
2
|
New
|
RNC
|
Laughing at the Issues
|
1,294,650
|
NEW
|
|
|
3
|
8
|
Priorities USA Action
|
Doors
|
425,287
|
21%
|
|
|
4
|
Back on Chart
|
RNC
|
We've Heard It All Before
|
421,806
|
Back on Chart
|
|
|
5
|
2
|
Jewish Council for Education & Research
|
Wake the F@#k Up
|
358,998
|
-61%
|
|
|
6
|
New
|
Barack Obama
|
President Bill Clinton on the Real Mitt Romney
|
302,282
|
NEW
|
|
|
7
|
7
|
Barack Obama
|
Table
|
281,159
|
-40%
|
|
|
8
|
New
|
Thomas Peterffy
|
Freedom To Succeed
|
260,956
|
NEW
|
|
|
9
|
4
|
Barack Obama
|
Happy 20th Anniversary Barack and Michelle
|
209,855
|
-71%
|
|
|
10
|
New
|
Barack Obama
|
Earned
|
183,635
|
NEW
|
|
Source: Visible Measures
Note: True Reach counts the combined performance of the original campaign clips uploaded by candidates and supporting groups like Super PACs as well as the copies and derivative videos uploaded by audiences. This analysis doesn’t include Visible Measures’ paid-placement performance data or video views on private sites.
