Political advertising keeps increasing, and the biggest and most lucrative audience in America is football fans. So, chances are if you live in a battleground state with the 2024 Presidential Election season approaching the home stretch, your television will be flooded with political ads while you’re trying to watch a game.
Recognizing that television advertising might be tuned out by football fans a month out from the election with more ads hitting the airwaves than ever before, the Democratic National Committee is trying a unique approach in battleground states on Sunday.
It just so happens that the Week 6 NFL schedule features six teams in battleground states playing each other. The Arizona Cardinals visit the Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin, the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Las Vegas to play the Raiders in Nevada, and NFC South rivals face off when the Atlanta Falcons play the Carolina Panthers in North Carolina. Not to be left out, Pennsylvania will see the Philadelphia Eagles host the Cleveland Browns in what may be the tipping point state for the 2024 Presidential Election.
At each NFL game, the DNC will be doing a flyover campaign to reach the tens of thousands of football fans who will be present in the states that can decide the election.
According to DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman, the NFL battleground state contests represented the perfect opportunity to try to reach fans and voters in a new way.
“The NFL is still the number one sport in the country; it just so happens looking at the schedule, we found out that six of the seven teams that are in battleground states are playing each other, and the Eagles are also at home, so it gave us a unique opportunity to reach out to fans in a way that’s different,” Rahman told Awful Announcing.
“A lot of times when it comes to sports and politics, all you see are TV ads. For people that are enjoying the game, I am very convinced a lot of people tune out those TV ads. So we wanted to find a different way to get our message out to the people we need to win this election, and this was a major part of that.”
Political ads on television during games can easily be tuned out or become white noise this deep into an election cycle. It’s why the Amazon Thursday Night Football broadcasts on Prime Video have stood out since the company does not allow political advertising. It’s also part of the reason why so many fans at home flock to NFL RedZone where it’s all football all the time.
However, the push to reach voters in these states who could decide the election is more important than ever. According to the New York Times, the polling averages in the seven battleground states (Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) are all within two percentage points.
For Rahman, that meant trying to create a way to share the Harris campaign’s message in a new medium and reach any undecided voters that may still be out there.
“Our goal is to do something fun and creative, and this meets both of those criteria,” Rahman said. “NFL RedZone is huge; that is a major thing that a lot of people do. For us, our entire goal is to do something catchy with a simple message that we want voters to take away. At the end of the day there are only 7 or 8 states that are going to decide this election. What we wanted to do is reach all of those states in a creative way, doing something that we know the entire state is going to be watching, such as these football games.”
In Philadelphia, a plane will carry a banner that reads, “Go Birds! Sack Project 2025! Vote Kamala.” For the games in Green Bay and Charlotte, the plane banner will say, “Sack Trump’s Project 2025! Vote Kamala!” Finally, fans in Las Vegas will see “Vote Kamala” skywriting in the air over Allegiant Stadium on the strip.
Politics has always been present in sports, but with the 24/7 media cycle, it may seem that the two are more integrated than ever before. From Colin Kaepernick to WNBA activism to outlets that blend the two together, sports and politics seem to go hand in hand in 2024. There’s a reason why Donald Trump attended the Alabama-Georgia football game and Tim Walz was present for the Minnesota-Michigan game. Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on All the Smoke with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. Both campaigns are trying to meet voters where they are.
While that might be uncomfortable for fans who want to view sports as an escape from the tense and sometimes toxic national political conversation, it’s the reality of our current moment. And for Rahman and the DNC, they hope this flyover ad campaign in battleground states this weekend can reach voters in a way that doesn’t have to apologize for being present in their lives and sharing their message during a football game.
“Politics is part of your everyday life whether you want it to be or not. Earlier this month, we had Athletes for Harris launch, with 15 Hall of Famers saying they support Vice President Harris. You’ve seen people like LeBron James be very outspoken about their political views. Even people on the other side too, like Harrison Butker of the Chiefs, he’s been outspoken as a conservative, and that is every American’s right to do,” Rahman said.
“We embrace things that Americans love rather than going to our dark corners of the internet, which is what Republicans are doing, and airing grievances. We love our country; Republicans are right now really angry about a lot of things about the country. We want to show that, and there’s no better way to do that than to do plays like this with the NFL.”
