Buying cable advertising is simple, streamlined and superior. That was the message delivered to D.C. media buyers, campaign insiders and other politcos in a conference this week targeting increased cable ad sales for the ’08 election cycle. At the political advertising summit, Cox's John Dyer, Comcast's David Cohen, and Time Warner's Landel Hobbs pledged to make it easy to buy cable spot time across the country and discussed unique interactive advertising applications under development by the industry. Pitching cable's superiority over broadcast in surgically targeting specific demographic groups and multicultural audiences, the industry expects to attract significant ad spending in the upcoming election cycle. Cable providers have also joined forces to develop a common On Demand advertising platform -- Elections '08 -- allowing campaigns to engage with prospective voters through long-form ads, available 24/7 on digital cable. From the Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of this week’s event:

The nation's big cable companies are taking aim at one of broadcast television's last cash cows as they hope to turn their newfound ability to target small segments of voters into advertising dollars. Cable industry executives think they can help supplant broadcast television as the dominant political medium as politicians look for ways to reach smaller slices of the electorate.

"Broadcast television is targeting by machete," Comcast executive vp David Cohen said. "What cable lets you do is target by scalpel. There's much less blood loss."

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