LTO Links #303

What Purpose Do Political Ad Bans Serve?

for the CampaignTech Innovation Summit in Washington, DC on November 17, 2022. I bought mine this week and hope to see you there too.

Learn. Test. Optimize.

Issue #303 |  

Advertising

Big Tech’s political ad bans are a big charade

"All of this has made it increasingly expensive for smaller, less resourced political campaigns to advertise online. That, Perault said, is a “social cost” that tech platforms need to assess at least as much as they assessed the upside of banning political ads. But nearly three years after many of these companies made that decision, and with a contentious midterm election just months away, Perault said, our understanding of the effects of those bans is still woefully inadequate."

Abortion-related Advertising Spend On Facebook In 2022

"Year-to-date, on abortion messaging, Democratic-leaning spenders have outspent Republican-leaning ones 14 to 1.

‍"Even when you remove Planned Parenthood, the single largest spender on this issue – accounting for 63% of all abortion-related spend among the top 50 political advertisers – Democrats still outspent Republicans on this topic by 4:1.

"In 2022, Democrats have allocated roughly 19% of their Facebook ad spend to abortion-related ads whereas Republicans have only utilized 1% of theirs."

Campaigns

PA candidate Mastriano connects to voters via social media

"Since cruising to a 24-point victory a month ago, the Mastriano campaign has shunned national media outlets seeking profiles and answers to rudimentary questions. Unlike his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, he hasn’t delivered a public speech to frame the general election. He hasn’t embarked on a statewide tour to portray party unity or asked high-profile Republicans to vouch for him.

"Instead, he’s spent a bulk of his time online, doing Facebook Lives with supporters and sympathetic conservative media personalities."

How to Use Digital to Stand Out In a Crowded Primary

"That’s why we spent the first several months doing nothing but pushing out ads that built the candidate’s name recognition and brand awareness: who our candidate was, what she stood for, why she was running, etc. There was no ask to donate or sign up to join the campaign. Simply, if our ads resonated with our audience, they could click to 'learn more.'"

Email

Senate Republicans target Google with bill to stop Gmail from allegedly sending GOP political emails to spam

"Called the Political BIAS Emails Act, the bill would ban email services from applying filtering algorithms to messages from federal political campaigns. Email services like Google also would be forced to provide information to campaigns directly upon request and produce quarterly reports on GOP and Democrat emails going to spam."

Fundraising

Colorado Governor Jared Polis fundraises with NFTs

"For the mile-high price of $52.80 (corresponding to the elevation of Denver in feet), you can buy one of 2,022 digital tokens featuring a pair of sneakers, a green chili pepper, rainbow-colored mountains — and Polis' dog Gia, who's firing lasers from her eyes."

Jan. 6 failed to overturn the election, but as a marketing campaign…

"Looking through a database of Trump campaign emails, I found 260 emails about the Election Defense Fund, including this one from Dec. 2, 2020 that alleged Democrats and the media were stealing the election, so contribute $5 right now."

International

Google ordered to pay Australian politician over defamatory YouTube videos

"An Australian court on Monday, June 6, ordered Google to pay a former lawmaker A$715,000 ($515,000), saying its failure to take down a YouTuber’s “relentless, racist, vilificatory, abusive and defamatory campaign” of videos drove him out of politics."

Technology