The Reform and Labour parties are buying newspaper advertising, but will readers realise that the advertising is being paid for?
Megan Harwood Baines, digital investigative reporter
The Reform and Labour parties have bought advertising on the country’s two biggest news sites in an attempt to motivate voters in the final days before the general election.
Look at MailOnline and Nigel Farage’s stern face shines from both the main banner and the left-hand side of the site.
Their manifesto – which they call a “contract” with the people – is plastered on the side of news websites.
Meanwhile, Labor has run adverts across the online edition of The Sun, presumably trying to emulate its 1992 “The Sun has won” front page.
As the countdown to the Fourth of July approaches, they lament “14 years of Tory chaos”.
The point is that neither newspaper openly endorses any candidate, a nuance that regular readers might be forgiven for not noticing.
In 1992, The Sun claimed credit for a Conservative victory after openly campaigning to sway voters away from then Labour leader Neil Kinnock.
It is an oft-cited example of the influence tabloids have on politicians and elections.
So far, the Daily Telegraph has backed the Conservatives, while the Guardian, Daily Mirror, Economist, New Statesman and Daily Record have all backed Labour.
While The Times, The Sun and the Daily Mail have not endorsed anyone, the Daily Star has taken the unusual (but perhaps unsurprising) stance of backing Lord Binface, calling him “Britain’s sanest politician”.
The Mirror already supports the Labour party and at first glance it appears to be covered in Labour adverts, but the red banners promising “change” are actually for coffee brand Nespresso.
Sky News has been focusing on the ad as part of its Online Elections Project, a Sky News-led initiative to cover the online election campaign. Tom Cheshire, Online Campaigns Correspondent.
The study also found that one political party dominates social media, but that doesn’t mean it’s the party that spends the most money on it.
Reform UK has received overwhelming support, with the party’s page seeing an increase of more than 32,000 followers during the election.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party only gained 596 new voters.
Sixteen of the top 20 most-loved posts were also from Farage.
And for some Conservatives, the sole brand is deemed so bad that they have abandoned it altogether.
