Census Spends $2.5M on Super Bowl Ads

(AP)  Faced with record levels of red ink into the foreseeable future, Washington is spending $2.5 million to create buzz for the census - by advertising during the Super Bowl.

The Census Bureau is hoping to exploit the strong ratings from this annual attraction, aiming to get more participation from people who now seem disinclined to mail back a government questionnaire or even answer the door.

Census officials call it a good investment, saying the front-end costs of purchasing the ads can be quickly recouped if they succeed in encouraging people to mail back their census forms. A recent poll found nearly 1 in 5 residents said they may not fill them out, mostly because they were unfamiliar with the census or weren't interested.

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The government relies on the census not only to learn about Americans and their lives but also to parcel out federal dollars and, as required by the Constitution, to determine the number of U.S. House seats representing each state. The census officially began last month in rural Alaska, and most of the U.S. will receive their forms by mail the week of March 15.

Not everyone is happy about spending taxpayer money to tout the census during the Super Bowl.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., tweeted this week that the government "shouldn't be wasting $2.5 million taxpayer dollars to compete with ads for Doritos!" Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., called on the Census Bureau to justify every dollar of its $133 million ad campaign, citing the tight economic times.

There's no such lack of interest on the part of the mayors, county commissioners, governors, Congress members and state legislators - a host of public figures ranging from city hall to the U.S. Capitol - who hang on every census because the head count determines the size and shape of legislative districts and, equally critical, just how much money the various localities get from some $400 billion in federal aid.

Plans for the Super Bowl commercials come after the House voted Thursday to increase America's debt by $1.9 trillion - to $14.3 trillion - or over $40,000 for every man, woman and child the Census Bureau hopes to catch in its count.

In the ads, actor Ed Begley Jr. plays a film director in the ad spots, where he announces with flourish a new project that will create a portrait of "every man, woman and child in this beautiful country of ours ... a snapshot of America." Looking quizzically, two onlookers whisper, "Isn't that what the Census is doing?"

It's an ad buy the Census Bureau believes worked well during the 2000 census, when it ran similar spots during the Super Bowl for the first time. This year's $2.5 million deal, which the agency says could reach 45 percent of all U.S. adults, includes two 30-second pregame spots, two or three on-air mentions by sportscaster James Brown and a 30-second ad during the third-quarter.

The Census Bureau says few events can match the Super Bowl's reach of 100 million TV viewers. That's because for every percentage point increase in the mail response rate, it saves an additional $85 million to find and count those people.

The government plans additional census spots during the Winter Olympics and Daytona 500, as well as road tours throughout the country, including the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans and Chinese New Year celebrations in San Francisco.

Segments are also planned in social media, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.

Subsequent census ads will encourage people to mail in their form with themes such as "It's in your hands" and "We can't move forward until you mail it back." They will followed later by spots aimed at letting people know that census-takers may be visiting their homes.

[Berniee2000]

The census ad was very poor. They should have done a better job. They tried to make it cute, but it ended up being very stupid. Whoever chose that commercial for the SuperBowl should be fired.

[jgg000101]

if this was your money would you spend it to tell people that you were going to have other people come count them? Where is the benefit in this? The squeeze ain't worth the juice.

[robinspp]

Unfortunately for them it is a waste of money. Whenever there is a commercial I switch channel to channel. I rarely see commercial because I do not believe in them and I do not act on them.

[kansas1946]

The government relies on the census not only to learn about Americans and their lives but also to parcel out federal dollars and, as required by the Constitution, to determine the number of U.S. House seats representing each state.
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They may not be getting a lot of cooperation because last time they
decided to send these huge questionaires with questions about things that were none of their business. The questions as defined by the consitution are how many children and adults live in your household. Period. Not your race, income, etc. Anyone I know that got the long form just verified their address and answered how many folks lived in the household and sent the stack back.

[jgg000101]

what bothers me even more is that 1M part-time census workers are being factored as "jobs created".

[writer10]

$2.5 mil in 'advertising' that will 'pay off'...pay off for 'what?? LOLOL!!!!! just like the headline that 85% of Americans 'approved' of BO SOU address...based on a poll of 500 people...or that unemployment is 'down' to 9.7 (err...really???) as the stock market plunges, unemployment is lowering? not so much...nothing more than democrat hype/political lies...good grief...

[velma179]

You don't read well, do you?

The headline reads: Poll:83% Approve... (it's right up there ^ check it out) and being a headline, it also has an article that explains about the POLL. Anyone with half a brain knows poll results are not a percentage of [all] Americans. Sheesh.

The unemployment rate is down according to the non-partisan Bureau of Labor Statistics. What? Are you wishing more of your fellow Americans were unemployed, so you could delight in their hard times just to put more blame on Obama? Pathetic!

The stock market is down for various reasons. When it is down, you blame the president and Democrats, but when it is up you don't dare give them credit.

You are a hypocrite without rudimentary reading skills. Writer, my arse.

[jgg000101]

here's the difference: companies that advertise hope to get a financial benefit from their investment. The only ROI for the census bureau is awareness. It's an expensive trade off. What I am curious about is WHO of our esteemed leadership will be attending the super bowl. Every ad buy of this magnitude receives a block of complimentary tickets and the attendees are treated lavishly at parties and in skyboxes on game day. It will be interesting to see if this is reported.

[Living_the_High_Life]

They couldn't do this during some popular reality show like American Idol or somewhere that they could have done it for A LOT less?

[velma179]

The Super Bowl gets the largest viewing audience of any program aired during the year and the audience is the most diverse. It really is the best bang for the buck, so to speak.

The Census is important. I honestly can not recall it ever being an issue like it is now. The us against them dialogue in America today is tragic, it is tearing our country down.

[run2jazz2]

McCain please shut up! The simple reason why Republicans are against the census is because of re-districting of how the census will show demographically and Hispanics as they now are not voting "Republican" and they don't want them to show during the census. What a American?

[IndepTex20]

Are you talking about the illegal population The Marxist in the WH wants as his largest voting block!?

[writer10]

run2jazz2...please shut up! least til you know what the hell you're talking about...