What Cash For Clunkers did for the auto industry, election season would apparently have the same stimulus-like effect for the advertising & media industry.

Research shows you need to see a campaign ad not once, not twice, not three times, but 7 to 10 times before a candidate’s message really sinks in. Here’s how the math looks to a candidate for Congress. It costs about $41,800 to buy enough air time to reach every voter in a congressional district one time with one ad. But voters need to see an ad up to 10 times, so it takes $418,000 to get one message out voters will remember.  — Darren Gersh, PBS

Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.

The scary thing, other than the fact that we’re guaranteed to see more negative attack ads in the 2012 election with the Republican’s successful takeover of the House of Representatives, is that candidates seeking office spent so much money that they could have bought every registered voter a pizza with the works.

Considering the sorry state of contemporary American politics, it’s debatable if it (e.g. money in exchange for psychological influence) is worth it.