The 2016 presidential election reminded Americans of the disinformation, misinformation, and policy manipulation that will befall political media.
These strategies are not new, but the tactics are more effective than ever. This year, platforms and advertisers have become much more sophisticated and have expanded their reach, with streaming and data-driven media replacing legacy media that couldn’t target a single community.
Digital ad targeting may only reach 4% of the primary population. Your neighbors will hear different truths. We all Bowling alone Within our own filter bubbles.
Meanwhile, membership in real-world community organizing groups is declining, and veteran political advertisers say they believe likely voters in both parties are angrier than in previous elections.
This is a warning.
America faces a unique polarization challenge
Outside the United States, around 50 national elections are scheduled to be held this year in areas with fewer safeguards. There are already disturbing examples of disinformation being used to influence these elections. Play against Taiwan China launched an intense disinformation campaign in January. They repelled this with a “society-wide” response.
American civil society does not have the capacity to do the same.
Case in point: An acquaintance of mine who was a political consultant for 20 years recently decided to get out of the business out of a genuine belief that the election was being stolen, in keeping with the claims of 2020. This consultant is not quitting politics; he is quitting democracy.
The biggest advertising story of our generation is the shift from broadcast to audience targeting. It’s easy to push a niche audience in a crazy direction these days. We’ve all experienced misinformation entrenching polarization among our peers. This is a wake-up call to recognize that audience targeting and online information campaigns have some nasty by-products.
Political pundits should remind themselves that any kind of focused and repetitive microtargeting that appeals to our reptilian brains has consequences.
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Consider how political advertisers target primary voters with increasingly extreme messages that the rest of America doesn’t hear during a general election.
Or consider political fundraising: email subject lines and text messages express a constant state of panic. This extreme political message must stand out during A/B testing or sophisticated shops won’t stick with it.
Consumer-facing businesses will never engage with customers in the same way as political campaigns. Their brand will be destroyed.
Advertising industry responsibility
Part of the blame for this polarization lies with us, as advertisers. From consultants and political agencies to commercial DSPs and SSPs, the political advertising industry must take proactive steps to self-regulate potential misuse of their technology.
This is not a wake-up call to a few DSPs or SSPs. It’s a consideration for everyone downstream who facilitates ad targeting. For those of you working on Lumascape and reading AdExchanger, I have something to share with you.
OpenAI did the right thing by banning campaigns from using ChatGPT. “Creating a large amount of election materials” but The product is still leaking.
leading tech platform Regulated or under threat of regulationSo they either ban political ads or put significant limits on them. Political ad budgets are irrelevant to Meta or Google, so why bother dwelling on this controversy?
But with the same budget, you can attract publishers, consultants, and a reliable audience.
Political campaigns at the state level can be especially dangerous because of the lack of regulatory power. As someone who has served in the office of a state elections regulator, I have less confidence in their ability to protect our democracy than in their patriotism.
And they will not get help from Washington, D.C. Neither the FEC nor Congress will pass any meaningful regulations or laws this election, and probably never will.
Ad tech companies and political advertisers need to self-enforce audience targeting standards. It would be extremely valuable to learn how other industries are promoting fairness and equality in digital advertising. Transparency standards similar to financial disclosures would allow political advertisers to make full disclosures without giving their strategies away to others.
It will help ad tech companies and political targeters understand how lookalike targeting can break through echo chambers and demonstrate how to draw a firm line between disinformation and deepfake creative.
As political advertisers, there is a lot we can do.
First, it allows buyers and ad tech to release competitive intelligence even when spend horizons lag significantly. Separating tradecraft from broader advertiser data doesn’t negatively impact revenue.
Call to action
Billions of dollars will be spent on political digital advertising this year. Vendors and media that have earned their fair share are responsible for repairing any damage to the system. Perhaps sponsoring a civics class or paying for a summer internship at The Hill. If we reinvest in democracy, we will continue to see rapid growth in this industry.
The political advertising industry owes its political and public policy profits to democracy. We should remember that before it’s too late.
“Data-driven thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
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