It needs to be said. Political advertising sucks. Everything about it.

But first, full disclosure. My expertise is in media strategy, planning and buying. Not politics.

Alright now, let’s just start with the facts. In 2012, it is projected that $5.8 billion will be spent on the US presidential election. This figure includes “all dollars spent by presidential candidates, senate and house candidates, political parties and independent interest groups trying to influence federal elections.”

$5.8 billion. Seriously? That’s enough money to feed a small country.

Now, while these politicians and special interest groups are out buying up airtime, who is it impacting? The same local business they are often saying that they’re campaigning to support. You see, politicians are entitled to the lowest rates a station or publication is charging so small business often have to spend more money to get their ads seen during hot political times. What’s worse, local ads are often squeezed out because the politicians have bought up all of a station’s inventory. So that timely ad for the sale you’re running this weekend? You better pray that it doesn’t get bumped out.

Political advertising also hurts local station sales reps. If you think advertising money coming into the state for local elections would be great for the local economy, think again. Most politicians use media buying companies that specialize in political advertising — and the majority of them operate out of D.C. That means all the advertising dollars come in through the national side so sales reps not only have to deal with their local clients getting displaced, they also don’t see any commission on those media dollars. No job creation here.

Finally, as you probably already know, political ads are full of BS. Politicians manipulate the truth, tell tall tales and influence citizens that are uninformed about issues. Many sites like FactCheck.org and Politifact.com exist just to call out lies in political campaigns.

So tell me, why are we allowing politicians to spend all of this money to essentially lie to the American public? And can someone please lecture them on the repercussions of  wearout?