If you love a good political attack ad, you may want to watch the commercials during your favorite crime show, because one gripping plot line deserves another, apparently.
Research shows crime shows have the highest percentage of negative political ads out of any genre, according to a study performed by Kantar Media/CMAG. The study looked at campaign ads in Senate, House and gubernatorial races so far this year and found that of the 979 political commercials that aired during crime shows, 76.5 percent were attack ads.
Entertainment magazine shows came in a close second, with 7 in 10 being attack ads.
Political media buyers understand that if you are watching between the hours of 7 and 11, you already are tuning in for some sort of violence or character assassination, Elizabeth Wilner, who oversees Kantar’s political advertising operation, told USA TODAY. You are primed … for drama anyway.
The largest share of political commercials air between the 5 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. time slot, according to the data, but few attack ads air during that time.
When you wake up in the morning, you don’t necessarily want to start your day seeing negative political ads in between all those nice fluffy human-interest stories about amazing kids and even more amazing pets, Wilner added.
This also resulted in the Sunday morning shows and public affairs programs (some of which refuse to sell political ads) having the lowest percentage of attack ads. Only 55.4 percent of them had a negative tone.
