The Media Mix: The media company saying no to political ad dollars to keep marketers happy.
Swing state voters have had enough of political advertising
This year the number of advertisers looking for a politics free environment to put their ads has doubled versus the last presidential cycle, according to Sean McCaffrey, the CEO of GSTV, a video network that provides content and commercials at gas stations.
McCaffrey said the company had taken political ads in previous cycles but he is playing a long term game. The hope is that in making gas stations a politics free zone advertisers who don’t want to be sandwiched between negative messaging about abortions and gun violence will spend at GSTV instead. The decision means saying no to millions of dollars coming to the digital out-of-home ad market from the campaigns. It’s a gamble that McCaffrey is prepared to make based on what consumers want. The company ran a survey this summer finding that two thirds of consumers said they saw too many political ads and that they went out of their way to avoid them.