In face time, advantage Menino

So this month, the Entertainment Software Rating Board sent to Boston television stations a 30-second ad featuring the mayor surrounded by children playing video games. The board sent an audio version with Menino’s voice to local radio stations. And it plastered a print ad, showing the mayor gripping a game console, on the sides of 45 MBTA buses and inside 10 subway stations. Such ads and public service announcements, running as Menino faces what could be a tough reelection campaign, highlight one of the enormous advantages the mayor enjoys as an incumbent. At a time when his opponents are struggling to raise money for their own ads and gain visibility across the city, Menino is gaining valuable free publicity by pushing worthy causes.

“It magnifies and amplifies the omnipresent nature of the way he governs,’’ said Lawrence S. DiCara, a former City Council president and longtime observer of Boston politics. “It’s pretty difficult for his challengers to match it.’’

John C. Berg, chairman of the Suffolk University government department, said it shows why incumbents have such a built-in advantage.

“They can do this stuff, which is no doubt intended to help the campaign, but looks very legitimate because they’re taking advantage of their role as head of the city,’’ he said.

Menino said he will not make any apologies for putting himself out there for good causes. He said he just recorded a new radio spot for a charity golf tournament, and has four or five more public service announcements in the pipeline. “I’ll do this any time it affects people in the city of Boston while I’m mayor,’’ Menino said in an interview. “I did it in the past and I’ll do it in the future.’’

Not only is Menino appearing in the video-game spots, the mayor was recently pictured grinning and holding a “Live United’’ T-shirt in a public service announcement for the United Way that ran on a Dorchester billboard. The United Way campaign urges people to volunteer their time and money. The mayor can also be seen joking with slugger David Ortiz in a Red Sox-sponsored public service announcement for youth summer recreation programs that is running in highly coveted slots during games on NESN.

The mayor said that none of the ads were paid for with public money. The Entertainment Software Rating Board paid $43,195 to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to run its ads with the mayor for three months, the T said. Red Sox officials could not immediately say whether NESN is running its ads with Menino for free, or whether the team paid for the airtime. NESN would not comment.

The United Way billboard in Dorchester - which would cost about $3,000 per month to rent on the private market, according to independent ad buyers - was donated by the city, said Brigid Boyd, a United Way spokeswoman. Boyd said the city approached the United Way to offer the space.

“We gladly accepted,’’ she said. “And we provided the city with the ‘Live United’ image of Mayor Menino for this donated space.’’

The broadcast public service announcements could, under federal law, trigger the “equal time’’ provision that grants political opponents the same opportunity for exposure on the airwaves, legal specialists said.

Radio and television stations are allowed to devote as much airtime as they please to covering candidates in news segments, but if they broadcast a candidate in a public service announcement, the candidate’s opponents can petition for their own spots, said James R.W. Bayes, a Washington lawyer who represents radio and television stations before the Federal Communications Commission.

“Public service announcements do count if a candidate appears in them,’’ he said, adding that stations often avoid being forced to grant equal airtime to challengers by pulling public service announcements featuring politicians in the midst of an election.

Menino’s ads on the MBTA cover especially exclusive real estate. The T bans ads that “refer to any candidate for public office,’’ but the agency decided to run the video-game ads with Menino because “if you look at our court-approved guidelines, you won’t find any category under which the [video game] ads would be prohibited,’’ agency spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an e-mail.

Thus, Menino’s opponents would not be able to buy ads on buses and subway stations, even if they wanted to. Not surprisingly, those opponents are not happy to see Menino smiling back at them from buses, subway stations, TV screens, and billboards.

“It points to the need for campaign finance reform, because the whole idea is to have a level playing field,’’ Councilor Sam Yoon said. “And if we level the playing field and make campaigns and elections fair, the candidate with the best ideas ought to win.’’

Councilor Michael F. Flaherty, who is also running for mayor, said: “Public awareness is important, but it’s unfortunate that the mayor wants to raise awareness on every issue except that there is an election in Boston for mayor this year. I hope he will advertise the dates he plans to debate with the same vigor.’’

Many politicians, of course, leap at the chance to tape public service announcements, but few seem to do so with Menino’s relish and regularity.

“He’s a master of this stuff,’’ Berg said.

And he has been doing it for years. In 2005, for example, Menino appeared with Sox outfielder Trot Nixon in a public service announcement imploring the public to keep Boston’s parks clean. The year before, he recorded an ad warning seniors about Medicare scams.

“It’s unfortunate people think this is about politics,’’ the mayor said. “This is about government making sure people have better lives.’’

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.