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Sick of Political Ads on TV Yet?

The Tampa area ranked fourth in the nation in the amount of political commercials last month. Have you seen enough?

 

You almost can't flip through the channels right now without seeing President Barack Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney looking back at you.

That's because the Tampa market ranked fourth in the nation in the number of political ads on broadcast TV during a 22-day period last month, TBO.com reports.

Researchers at the Wesleyan Media Project found that 6,361 presidential campaign commercials aired on Tampa television from Sept. 9-30, ranking us just behind Denver, Las Vegas and Cleveland. That's about 290 ads per day spread among the four local broadcast stations, the TBO story notes.

With the presidential candidates still neck and neck in the polls in Florida and elsewhere, and with other state and local races also in the mix, we can expect even more political commercials in the days and weeks ahead.

So what do you think? Are you sick of all the political ads on TV? Do any of them resonate with you? Or do you just change the channel or fast forward your DVR when they come on?

Post a comment below and share your thoughts.

About this column: What's Tampa Bay Saying is an occasional column that features local, state or national news that we want to get the entire region's take on. These stories are posted on the various local Patch sites throughout Tampa Bay. That way, you can see what your neighbors think, as well as some of the different opinions that make each part of Tampa Bay so unique. We'll follow each column with a roundup of the very best local comments on our individual Patch sites so you can see exactly what readers in your community had to say about a particular topic. Related Topics: Barack Obama, Commercials, Mitt Romney, Political Ads, TV, elections 2012, and participate 2012

Rob Marlowe

5:50 am on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The DVR is getting a workout in our house. Fast forwarding through political commercials is great.

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Harvey A. Smith

7:34 am on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A resounding YES! The character assassination, misleading sound bites, disengenuous accusations and outright lies being fostered on the American public by many politicians only serves to disgust and wear down the concept and illusion that we are making a change for the better in this election. The fault for this economical mess lies squarely at the feet of voters...and those who don't bother to vote... who continue to re-elect and allow those political hacks who are directly responsible for managing our public - and now - private affairs continue in office. Imagine hiring someone like many of those in Washington who have been feeding at the public trough for their entire career managing your business! Is anyone really wondering or even caring about the embarrassingly low, very low rating Congress has in the eyes of the American public? I guess not because the same politicians who got us to this point continue to survive as a result of their incumbency and ability to pay for the masive amount of the abovementioned political commercials. Surprise, surprise...we've just come full circle in our dance of disaster!

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-Ed Harris-

8:34 am on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

I've come to expect some jabs and they should be expected, it's a political campaign. I just feel (I said feel, no hard proof) that blatant lies have no part in a campaign, presidential or otherwise. I know it harping on the tired old point but Citz United is at the heart of this. I hear from the right "we need more conservative judges" and I hear from the left "we need more liberal judges". BOTH ARE DEAD WRONG! We need real judges, open minded, common sense, good sense, think outside the box, non-political judges! The Citz Untd choice should have never been heard. It is one of the largest drivers of the current political ads. The second big one is this overwhelming desire to belittle. You don't have to look at Obama/Romney to see this. Just wait a few hours and you will see scads of comments, off topic, belittling the other back and forth claiming debate and free speech. Political Truth needs to no longer be an oxymoron. Just speaking for myself I have not changed positions on any major issue since the start of this campaign 4 year ago. Neither side has provided consistently accurate information to make me change my mind. I'm not talking about Mr Romney or President Obama. I'm talking about the monsters that work for them. That all being said, it has been noted that people don't watch NASCAR for the race but for the crash!
But hey! What do I know, I'm just a plumber!

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Michael D.

9:15 am on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Have been watching shows an hour after they are broadcasted on the DVR to fast forward through the ads. Just have to stay away from Twitter/Facebook to make sure no one ruins it for me.

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Lynda

11:14 am on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Like most people commenting, I try to avoid the political ads. Local and national news programs seem to be the worst violators. Just one political ad after another with an occasional Viagra ad! Thank heavens for the PBS Newshour! I do think when an ad has been "fact-checked" as a lie, news programs ought to think carefully about showing it to prevent further damage to their reputations. Political campaigns seem to have wised up to which programs are being avoided, however, and are seeking alternatives. After HGTV and the FOOD channels were taken over by ads I was watching Animal Planet's "Too Cute" puppy series and was horrified when a political ad came on. Is there no escape except a fast mute button or a DVR? Certainly not on-line with all the banner ads!

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Linda

4:30 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The last good show on the Food Channel was the original Iron Chef, it just went down hill from there. And I'm with you, thank "you know who" for PBS

Katy

1:44 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

We either use the mute button throughout the whole commercial break or we watch our shows on dvr & fast forward like others do. Since this has been happening for months now we are getting to be experts at avoiding them. The day after election day can''t come soon enough!

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Linda

4:40 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

That's when I get up to get another beer, I've put on 25lbs. in the last month.

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Andy Warrener

7:28 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2012

I wanna hit back. I wonder if in Jason's research he found out which stations are airing all of these politrickal commercials. If it turned out some were doing it more than others, I say we write some letters or emails nowadays. I think it's important that the TV stations hear it from us that we're pissed about it. I, too, love the DVR these days but I would rather approach it more proactively. I'm certainly not passively pissed or fed up with it.

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Sean Sorbie

11:20 am on Monday, October 22, 2012

I love the political ads, but politics is kinda my thing.

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Janet

4:38 pm on Thursday, October 25, 2012

Having to watch the garbage of insults on TV is one thing, but for the phone calls that have invaded my privacy is an assault. Imagine using the outrageous amount of wasteful spending for political ads being used where it would matter - say for our youths education since they are the future.

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