The Ron Paul Effect: Did Kelly Clarkson’s Endorsement Boost Album Sales?

Kelly Clarkson might have the Ron Paul Effect to thank for the recent jump in her album sales.

After she endorsed the Republican presidential via Twitter Dec. 28, Clarkson's album sales supposedly jumped by somewhere between 200 and 400 percent, depending on the report.

Paul was proud the endorsement boosted her sales. At a campaign stop, he bragged to Iowa high schoolers about his popularity amongst Clarkson fans, reports Yahoo News. They went up and bumped up her sales on her records by 600 percent, he said.

However, The Hollywood Reporter debunked this theory. The Web site claims that the endorsement did little to help sales of Clarkson's album Stronger. According to both Nielsen SoundScan data and sources at Clarkson's label, RCA, there is little evidence to support the notion that the singer's praise for Paul had any effect.

The Hollywood Reporter states that, in fact, Clarkson's album sales actually dropped compared with the previous week. In the week that ended Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012, 'Stronger' sold 40 percent fewer copies than it did the previous week (25,000, as opposed to 41,000 in the week before Christmas), writes HR. And while it moved from No. 39 to No. 17 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, its upward momentum this week was caused by it having a less-steep decline in sales as compared to the rest of the titles on the chart (the overall album market was down 49 percent in the week after Christmas). Its total sales stand at 451,000 after 10 weeks.

Yahoo News reports that it was not Paul but rather an iTunes promotional push that attracted consumers. It wasn't Clarkson's political preferences that pushed digital sales of 'Stronger' - its $7.99 sale price (which was matched by AmazonMP3) and iTunes' advertising were the real reasons behind the gain. Those spikes were usually cited as evidence of the sales gain in the 'Ron Paul Sales Bump' articles, cites Yahoo.

Meanwhile, Paul spent Sunday morning debating in New Hampshire, where fellow candidate Rick Santorum threw some punches his way.

He's never really passed anything of any import, Santorum charged. And one of the reasons people like Congressman Paul is his economic plan. He's never been able to accomplish any of that. He has no track record of being able to work together. He's been out there on the margins.