Testing To Win: How To Identify TV Ads That Actually Work
Startup Caucus
Join us for a live webinar discussion where we will share details from new research about the efficacy of creative ad testing and how campaigners can use technology to optimize their advertising creative BEFORE launching it.

Advertising

Every Tech Giants’ Ad Oversight Tools Fall Short in Historic Election Year
Mozilla
"Because global tech companies often implement changes across their platforms to comply with international regulations, the EU regulations could have an outsized effect in non-EU countries with major elections this year — like the United States, Mexico, and India — leading to a ripple effect of how advertising is managed and monitored on these platforms worldwide."

A new Mozilla report exposes major flaws in social media ad libraries
Nieman Lab
"On Facebook, the researchers could only find 65% of the ads they identified in the library, showing again that ads were slipping through the cracks."

Campaigns

Trump turns his legal woes into a campaign fundraising machine
Politico
"Part of that strength is repeat donors who give to Trump regularly. Of the roughly 592,000 donors who gave to his joint fundraising committee on WinRed in the first three months of the year, nearly half gave multiple times in the period. A quarter of donors gave at least once a month."

Campaigns Have a New Favorite Tactic for Dealing With Reporters: Public Shaming
NOTUS
"The possibility of a campaign posting written questions or videos from reporters becomes a threat in itself the more times it actually happens. Maybe that threat makes a reporter second-guess even asking something uncomfortable or going down a difficult line of reporting if it’s going to mean dealing with public backlash on X and strangers spending days questioning their motives."

International

2024 AI elections tracker
Rest Of World
"As more than 2 billion people in 50 countries head to the polls this year, artificial intelligence-generated content is now widely being used to spread misinformation, as well as to confuse and entertain voters. Throughout 2024, Rest of World is tracking the most noteworthy incidents of AI-generated election content globally."

Meta AI is restricting election-related responses in India
TechCrunch
"Meta’s handling of GenAI queries appears to be based around a blocklist. When you ask Meta AI about specific politicians, candidates, officeholders and certain other terms, it will redirect you to the Election Commission’s website."

Social Media

TikTok is too tempting of a campaign tool for some candidates to shake
The Verge
"Amy Kelleher, senior director at progressive strategic communications agency Bully Pulpit International, says that while it’s an option for campaigns to leave access to the TikTok audience on the table, ‘in most cases, it does campaigns a disservice.’ She added that despite its reputation as being popular with Gen Z, many other groups of voters also show up on the platform, including Millennials and Gen Xers. TikTok is where Kelleher says she sees ‘a lot of initial focal points of the election happening.’”

Technology

States move to label deepfake political ads
Roll Call
"Like New Hampshire’s bill, other states’ efforts are largely focused on identifying content produced using AI as opposed to controlling that content or prohibiting its distribution, according to Megan Bellamy, vice president of law and policy at the Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan group that tracks election related laws in states."

How I Built an AI-Powered, Self-Running Propaganda Machine for $105
Wall Street Journal
"My AI content farm even turned an obituary for a Youngstown woman originally published on the website of WKBN, the city’s CBS affiliate, into pro-Moreno fluff. The article memorialized the deceased, a woman named Carolyn ‘Carol’ Jean Mulichak, before promoting Moreno: ‘In the upcoming Senate race, conservative candidate Bernie Moreno embodies many of the same values that Carol Mulichak held dear.’”