Dollars and Census
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 9:40PM While this weekend's Super Bowl set a record for being the most watched television program in American history, taxpayers forked over $2.5 million for a 30-second spot promoting the upcoming Census. Directed by improvisational genius Christopher Guest, somewhat of a modern-day Preston Sturges (minus the actual writing), and starring his competent cast of characters, the advertisement shown Sunday night was not as humorous as previous installments in the serious. Still, it was much better than a chauvinistic commercial selling Doritos:
Before Libertarians throw a flag for illegal procedure, it would be wise to consider the benefits of Census Bureau advertising. As the Commerce Department reports, $85 million is saved for every one percent of the people who watched the Super Bowl mail in their Census forms. By doing so, the government does not have to waste resources following up on negligent citizens. When the government undertook a $100 million ad campaign for the 2000 census, it saved taxpayers over $200 million and reversed a declining response rate trend that hit a nadir in 1990.
Speaking of the 1990 Census, here is a sketch from the old "Late Night with David Letterman," starring the immortal Larry Bud Melman, that serves as an instructional video for filling out forms: