Supporters of a campaign to raise wages and create a training program for Seattle's childcare workers are hitting the airwaves, unveiling a commercial that will air during one of the city's most-watched television events: Monday night's Seahawks game.
The ad buy highlights Proposition 1A's fundraising advantage. The campaign has out-raised a competing measure more than 3-to-1, logging more than $995,000 in contributions — nearly all of it from the American Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International unions.
Compare that to their opponent, Proposition 1B. Despite big-dollar gifts from a member of the Nordstrom family, a minority owner of the Mariners and the Bezos Family Foundation; the city-backed campaign to create a pilot program to pay preschool tuition for low-income families has only raised about $265,000 so far.
The Prop. 1A commercial set to air on ESPN during Monday night's telecast of the Seattle Seahawks game is part of a $25,000, week-long ad buy, campaign spokesperson Heather Weiner said. More commercials, she added, are in the works.
The ads will air during a peak viewing time in the Seattle market, even by primetime television standards. The last time the Seahawks played on Monday Night Football — in December of last year — more than 70 percent of television-watching households in the region tuned in.
