This year, political ad spending out-paced the 2004 political run by $1.2 billion dollars, reaching a total of $2.9 billion. And according to a report by ad spending analysts at TNS Media, $2.2 billion of that was spent on TV alone.

In these economically woeful times, might it be prudent for ad agencies to avoid TV offerings? TV air time and productions costs are many times more expensive than other media avenues; television is to air travel as print, new media, radio (etc) are to walking or riding a bike or driving.

So, why are agencies still doing so much TV work? Best guess: the clients want it. But does it have to be that way?

The value of TV advertising is a widely discussed topic, but really, it's an inflated medium that (compared to other media) doesn't hold water. Who knows if anyone is even looking at the tube, right? Clearly, this is a subjective issue, so we'll let you hash this one out. Cue handy poll!

(A note before you vote: the figures above represent spending on all political advertising, not just the presidential race. Expectations are that political ad spending will continue well into 2010 because President Elect Obama will be choosing staff, which will mean many seats at varied levels of government will be left open. Also, there will be 36 races for governor positions across the country in 2010.)

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