Brady ready for television ad debut

If you want to find Tom Knox, try watching

Law and Order

Saturday night.

Keep watching and you'll find Bob Brady, too.

Knox, Philadelphia's millionaire mayoral candidate, who has had the airwaves to himself for nearly three months, is finally getting some company.

Starting today and lasting into next week, Brady's mayoral campaign is moving onto TV, airing commercials that will run, on some channels, nine or more times a day.

A campaign aide yesterday would not say what the ad was about, when it was made, or whom it targeted.

"Brady for Mayor will begin advertising in the next day or so, but we are going to be reserving any further comment," spokesman Ken Snyder said.

According to records maintained by the television stations, the ad has cost Brady $281,250 - more than half of the $429,225 he reported having on hand in his mayoral account last month. The ad will run on 6ABC ($132,700), NBC3 ($74,950), CBS10 ($60,350), and Fox 29 ($13,250).

Most of the spots are scheduled to run during local news broadcasts, morning, noon and night. But Brady will also be visible during this weekend's prime-time shows, including NBC's The Apprentice and Grease: You're the One That I Want.

Going on TV - early and often, as they say - has helped Knox surge from last to second place among his five Democratic rivals in the May 15 primary election. The Brady campaign can only be hoping for the same type of reward; the most recent poll showed Brady, a five-term congressman who chairs the city's Democratic Party, lagging behind his competitors.

Brady may have a tough time catching up, on TV anyway.

Knox, who has already poured $5 million into his self-financed campaign, and spent $2 million on TV commercials, said last week he would spend "whatever it takes" to win.

Just what that means became somewhat clearer yesterday, with Knox's campaign team saying their candidate would launch his third commercial today, this one on crime - and that Knox would stay on the air for the foreseeable future.

"There won't be any pauses," Knox spokeswoman Susan Madrak said. "There will be ads every day now until the election."