Republicans Love Food Network, Weather Channel

Apparently, Republicans love watching the weather. Campaigns are becoming much more sophisticated about where they spend their ad dollars, the New York Times reports, leading to buys in such unlikely places as the Food Network, Weather Channel, HGTV, and the History Channel. Studies suggest all of those networks have pretty good reach among Republicans in Florida; 36% of GOP voters there, for example, watched the Weather Channel last week.

Targeting such unconventional markets is especially worthwhile as the airwaves fill with ads ahead of the primary. "You need to have your ads more spread out into other programming so you’re not just lumped into the political segment of a commercial break," explains Mitt Romney's media strategist. Romney's campaign is also using studies to target important demographics—it's especially keen on shows that have older audiences, like CSI, The Mentalist, and Criminal Minds. (More Weather Channel stories.)