Trump Campaign Manager Claims They Got ‘Better Deal’ on Super Bowl Ad Than Bloomberg

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale claimed that the president’s re-election team got a “heckuva lot better deal” than potential 2020 rival Mike Bloomberg’s campaign on their respective Super Bowl LIV advertisements.

Speaking with Sinclair TV’s Eric Bolling on America This Week, Parscale boasted about being able to pay less for 60 seconds of airtime than the former New York City mayor and billionaire, who has spent more than $100 million as part of his self-funded Democratic primary campaign. But Parscale provided no evidence to back up his claim to Bolling.

The Trump team ran a 30-second ad on criminal justice reform during the first quarter, but Bolling told Parscale that he didn’t notice the president’s second, 30-second ad. “It was at the very end, it was after the game officially,” Parscale conceded. “It was right before the award ceremony.”

“Do you pay the same amount?” Bolling followed up.

“No, no, no, no, we got a heckuva lot better deal than Bloomberg did,” Parscale said.

He did not elaborate on his claim.

Trump campaign communications manager Tim Murtaugh told Ad Age in early January that the president’s re-election team reserved its Super Bowl slots back in December. However, he notably did not claim that committing to 60 seconds of commercials early in the process saved the campaign any money, only that it “gave us prime ad position early in the game.”

Parscale’s “better deal” claim may instead involve his admission that the second of the campaign’s 30-second ads was not “officially” broadcast during the game, but instead aired after it, when viewers tend to fall off quickly. Ads on Fox airing right before the Super Bowl kickoff and just after the game clock expired reportedly cost between $2–$3 million, much lower as than the roughly $5–$5.6 million price tag for 30 seconds of airtime during the actual game. Bloomberg, who reportedly paid $11 million for his airtime, ran a single 60-second ad following the halftime show.

But still, paying less to advertise in a less attractive time slot would not constitute the Trump campaign team getting a “better deal” than anyone else advertising during those times.

Watch the video above, via Sinclair TV.