donald trump <u+2019>s reality tv show, <u+201c>the apprentice,<u+201d> made his voice famous with the iconic line <u+201c>you<u+2019>re fired.<u+201d> but over the course of the election, his campaign ads have taken a different direction, including few clips of the republican presidential nominee speaking. an ad released last week called <u+201c>united<u+201d> features sweeping shots of crowds at the candidate<u+2019>s rallies and clips of mr. trump walking onto stage, striding in front of his private jet and posing with police officers. the only time<u+00a0>he speaks is at the end: <u+201c>i<u+2019>m donald trump, and i approve this message.<u+201d> an ad released oct. 19 by democratic nominee hillary clinton, by contrast, exclusively features the candidate<u+2019>s voice. <u+201c>america already is great, but we are great because we are good,<u+201d> mrs. clinton says<u+2014>a voice-over taken from one of her responses during a presidential debate. the ad shows clips of students in classrooms and families at home and concludes with video of mrs. clinton speaking to and hugging voters. as the 2016 presidential election drew to a close, the two campaigns have used opposite tactics in their final pitches to voters. mr. trump has relied more heavily than mrs. clinton on positive ads, but had largely avoided featuring his own remarks<u+2014>until one released friday featured a voice-over by him. positive tv ads aired by the trump campaign between sept. 5 and oct. 30 featured the businessman just 19% of the time, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan wesleyan media project. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s positive ads featured the former secretary of state 58% of the time. steve lanzano, president of the television bureau of advertising, an association of tv broadcasters, said it is rare for candidates not to feature themselves in their positive ad spots. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t recall any historical campaigns where one candidate didn<u+2019>t address the audience directly,<u+201d> he said. erika franklin fowler, co-director of the wesleyan media project, said one likely reason the trump campaign shied away from featuring the candidate is mr. trump<u+2019>s already hefty media presence. <u+201c>since trump himself has been featured so heavily in news media, the campaign may be seeking to bolster his message through other methods,<u+201d> she said. trump spokeswoman hope hicks said, <u+201c>mr. trump is focused on the issues the american people care about. his speeches, campaign events and ads reflect this.<u+201d> indeed, mr. trump has garnered extensive free media coverage through interviews with cable networks and their coverage of his rallies live. his voice has also coated the airwaves through other means: more than 85% of ads attacking the new york businessman featured clips of him speaking, according to the wesleyan media project, and 87% of anti-trump ads focus specifically on his personal characteristics. pro-trump ads, meanwhile, largely avoid discussion of his personal characteristics. three-quarters of ads promoting the republican nominee focused on policy instead. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s ads roughly split their focus between her personal characteristics and her policies. still, mr. trump in recent weeks has aired a larger share of positive ads about himself than mrs. clinton. some 51% of the ads his campaign aired between sept. 16 and oct. 13 were positive, while 37% were negative, according to the wesleyan media project<u+2019>s analysis of kantar media/cmag data. his allied super pacs aired more negative ads, with 56% of their spots in that period attacking mrs. clinton. for mrs. clinton, 35% of her campaign<u+2019>s ads in that period were positive, while 51% were negative. and 97% of the ads aired by her allied super pac attacked mr. trump. experts this year have questioned whether tv ads have lost their luster, as the two candidates wound up neck-and-neck in the final week, despite mrs. clinton consistently outpacing mr. trump on the airwaves. mrs. clinton and her allies have aired more than 328,000 ad spots since the primaries concluded in june<u+2014>more than three times as many as mr. trump and his backers aired, according to a center for public integrity analysis of kantar media/cmag data. during the republican primaries, former florida gov. jeb bush spent more than $80 million on tv ads that gained him little traction in the crowded field of candidates. mrs. clinton was outpaced by democratic rival bernie sanders in the final weeks of the primary, yet still clinched her party<u+2019>s nomination. this election cycle through september, mr. trump and his backers spent $78 million on tv ads, according to kantar media, though pro-trump ad spending picked up in the final weeks. gop nominee mitt romney in 2012 spent $550 million on tv ads in the general election, together with his allied super pacs. the trend was the similar on the democratic side. mrs. clinton and her allies through september spent $325 million on tv ads, compared with mr. obama<u+2019>s $500 million over the course of the 2012 election. broadcasters felt the effect of mr. trump<u+2019>s unorthodox approach to campaigning.<u+00a0>in september, sinclair broadcast group inc. withdrew its political-spending forecast for the year, sending stocks across the broadcast industry lower. gray television inc. <u+2014>which owns stations in 51 markets<u+2014>also in september withdrew its guidance for political advertising revenue for the rest of the year. mr. lanzano disputed the notion that the 2016 election suggested any <u+201c>referendum<u+201d> on tv advertising, noting that as mr. trump<u+2019>s ad spending has picked up in the final weeks, his standing in the polls has risen, too. instead, he said, advertising<u+2019>s ineffectiveness for mr. bush and others suggested a flaw with the candidates themselves. <u+201c>television advertising can make a good product great, and really accentuate a bad product,<u+201d> he said. while spending on ads in the presidential election has fallen, ad spending in down-ballot races has risen by 6% this year over 2012. mr. lanzano expressed confidence that traditional ad-buying protocol would return in the coming years. <u+201c>in 2020,<u+201d> he said, <u+201c>we<u+2019>re going to go back to where we were before.<u+201d> write to rebecca ballhaus at rebecca.ballhaus@wsj.com
donald trump<u+2019>s, hillary clinton<u+2019>s last tv ads use opposite tactics to reach voters  - wsj
rebecca ballhaus