Conservative TV attack ads far outstrip other parties

If it felt like every second advertisement on your television last month was a paid political spot, you weren’t imagining things.

According to new numbers released by agency IPG Mediabrands, which manages and buys marketing and advertising exposure, Canadian voters were treated to over 9,800 political TV ads between Aug. 4 and Sept. 27.

The Conservative advertising dominated, which many observers had expected given the richer Tory war chest when the race began. Stephen Harper’s party accounted for 61 per cent of TV spots during the studied period, far outstripping the Liberals (26 per cent of ads) and the NDP (13 per cent).

READ MORE: Tory ethnic media ads say Liberals will make pot available to kids, put brothels in neighbourhoods

Almost 7 in 10 TV advertisements could be categorized as attack ads, and 77 per cent of all attack ads came from the Conservatives. They predominantly targeted Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

“When we look at the timings of the attack ads, you can see that the Conservatives went heavily anti-Trudeau from the beginning,” said Loraine Cordery of IPG Mediabrands.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "When we look at the timings of the attack ads, you can see that the Conservatives went heavily anti-Trudeau from the beginning," said Loraine Cordery of IPG Mediabrands.

The TV ad-war has only heated up since the end of September. This spot was released in early October by the Conservatives after the Liberals began showing signs of an upswing in the polls:

Attack-ad offerings from the NDP and Liberal camps, meanwhile, have largely targeted Harper for his economic record. According to IPG, they began airing more frequently throughout September. Around 15 per cent of all attack ads came from the Liberals denouncing Harper, while 11 per cent came from the NDP attacking the Conservative leader.

IPG Mediabrands also took a look at the Twitter chatter surrounding the various leaders and their parties. While Harper retains the lead for most Twitter followers (915,000), Trudeau has gained more followers than any other leader since the start of the campaign and now has 781,000 people watching his Twitter feed. Tom Mulcair has 187,000 followers, a 25 per cent bump since the start of the race.

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The federal election has generated over 2.3 million related tweets, IPG estimates, with Harper and the Conservatives dominating the conversation with 1.6 million tweets.

But it’s not all good chatter. The Conservatives were found to be 60 per cent more likely than the Liberals and 51 per cent more likely than the NDP to get negative tweets. The hashtag #StopHarper has been used over 34,000 times, while #peegate (related to the bizarre story of a Conservative candidate peeing in a mug on tape) was apparently used 8,114 times.