Vivek Ramaswamy resumes 'idiotic' TV ad spending

Vivek Ramaswamy has resumed TV ad spending a month after announcing that his campaign would no longer spend money on TV ads.

It comes after Mr Ramaswamy called TV ad spending “idiotic, low-ROI & a trick that political consultants use to bamboozle candidates who suffer from low IQ.”

Mr Ramaswamy made the comments in a post on X, in which he also shared an NBC News report that stated the Ramaswamy campaign would be stopping its spending on TV ads and slot reservations.

The NBC News report also revealed that during the first full week of December, the campaign spent $200,000 on TV ads, according to data from ad-tracking service AdImpact. But by the end of December, spending had dropped to just $6,000.

Campaign officials told NBC that they were spending money on ads, but not on TV.

The decision fuelled speculation that Mr Ramaswamy may be dropping out of the presidential race, with Donald Trump writing on Truth Social: “He will, I am sure, Endorse me. But Vivek is a good man, and is not done yet!”

However, while Mr Ramaswamy has previously described Mr Trump as “the best president of the 21st century,” it is not clear if this was the motivation for the decision.

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Mr Ramaswamy reiterated his negative stance on TV ads during a Fox News appearance following the report.

“I’m running this campaign, in the same way that I would run a company, with an actual IQ and an actual brain, not taken for a ride by political consultants. And I think that’s going to lead us to, ultimately, success here,” he said.

But a month later, the Ramaswamy campaign has seemingly ditched its new strategy, which was launched ahead of the first primary contests – the Iowa caucuses on 15 January and the New Hampshire primary on 23 January.

AdImpact data shows the campaign has reserved $22,500 worth of TV ad time in the next week, but ad spending reservations are always subject to change.

Tricia McLaughlin, communications director for the Ramaswamy campaign, told NBC News that the campaign is “following the data and having some fun.”

Although Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign has resumed spending on TV ads, his expenditure on such is much lower than that of the campaigns of his contenders.

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Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has booked $1.4 million worth of airtime in Iowa over the next week, while former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has booked $430,000 worth of airtime in the state up to 15 January.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign has booked almost $130,000 worth of TV airtime in Iowa over the next week.

The top expected spender on TV ads in Iowa over the next week is SFA Fund Inc., a super PAC backing Haley’s presidential bid, which has booked $2.4 million in ads between 9 and 15 January.

In contrast, the Ramaswamy-supporting American Exceptionalism PAC hasn’t spent anything on ads since October.

The Ramaswamy campaign said in early November that it was set to spend more than $10m on ads via broadcast, cable, radio, digital, and direct mail in Iowa and New Hampshire. Since then, the campaign has spent $2.2m on TV, digital, and radio, AdImpact data shows.