Biden campaign to launch ad blitz as NFL season kicks off

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President Joe Biden’s re-election operation will use the start of the National Football League season as a springboard to launch a massive ad blitz to highlight his administration’s economic record, his campaign has said.

Mr Biden’s 2024 campaign will spend $25m over the 16-week NFL season to place advertisements in front of football fans living in cities located in key swing states: Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Raleigh, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.

The first ad that will air as part of the multi-month advertising plan is a 30-second spot called “Got to Work,” which the campaign described as outlining how Mr Biden “defied the odds to avoid economic catastrophe with decisive leadership and action, all the while lowering costs, bringing back manufacturing, and creating good-paying jobs for the American people”.

The commercial starts off with images of news broadcasts as a narrator recalls how many predicted that “millions would lose their jobs and the economy would collapse” as a result of post-pandemic economic doldrums.

“But this president refused to let that happen. Instead, he got to work fixing supply chains, fighting corporate greed, passing laws to lower the cost of medicine, cut utility bills and make us more energy independent. Today, inflation is down to 3 per cent unemployment, the lowest in decades,” the narrator says, before concluding by noting that there is “more to do” and stating that Mr Biden is “getting results that matter”.

The massive ad buy from the president’s campaign comes as polling continues to show voters holding dim views of Mr Biden’s handling of key issues, most prominently the US economy.

But in a statement, Biden-Harris communications director Michael Tyler contrasted the campaign’s positive message with the ongoing Republican presidential primary, which he said includes “MAGA Republicans” who are competing “on their most extreme and unpopular positions”.

“Our campaign is investing in reaching a general election audience by investing in primetime placement. This buy sends a clear message that we are running an aggressive, winning campaign,” he said.