Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Among Super Bowl advertisements for Doritos, dachshunds chasing ketchup bottles and Dame Helen Mirren encouraging responsible alcohol consumption, football fans in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada also got a dose of presidential politics.
Data from political ad tracker Kantar Media show that three presidential campaigns and four super PACs took advantage of the perennial ratings powerhouse to try to sway voters in states that hold primaries or caucuses in the next few weeks.
Football fans in those states saw George W. Bush talk up his brother, super PACs supporting Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio trade jabs, and Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tout their qualifications for inhabiting the White House.
South Carolina, where Republican voters go to the polls on Feb. 20, saw the most ads— more than 20 during the game. And viewers in Charleston, South Carolina, got a triple whammy.
In one commercial, the Cruz-aligned Keep the Promise I portrayed Rubio as more concerned with fantasy football than world affairs. Then Clinton ran an ad featuring former Attorney General Eric Holder extolling her leadership. Then viewers saw Rubio again, only this time in a positive light as Conservative Solutions PAC praised the Florida senator and attacked Cruz and Trump.
All that was packed into about a minute and a half.
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