re: #163 Everybody Look at Your Hands

Apparently a few companies have been saying on the Twitter that they were “thrown” into his timeslot without their knowledge. Geico claims to be one of them. What a bunch of bullshit. So basically they’re saying Clear Channel (?) illegally put their ads on Rush’s show without compensation? I don’t believe a word of it.

It’s called a ‘pool buy.’ A certain percentage of ad buys are placed in slots among a pool of programs syndicated by a broadcast group (in this case, Premier). These ads could show up on Rush’s show, or Hannity’s or Randi Rhodes (who is also syndicated by Premier, believe it or not) or on any other show they syndicate. The companies pay for the ads, they’re just used in empty ad slots as they come up.

The only thing to stop this random ad placement is a specific request by the sponsor not to be placed on a certain show. That’s what GEICO (and Netflix as well, from what I’ve read today) are now doing.