(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Meta, the Big Tech company that owns Facebook and Instagram, banned companies from seeing metadata on its user’s political views, so political advertisers were forced to use consumer information to filter their ads.
How politicians filter their ads is important because it shows America’s cultural divide and how the parties think of their voters. Laura Edelson, a New York University researcher, told Axios, “When politicians are trying to deliver a targeted message, they have an interest in making sure they match the message to the audience.”
Edelson continued, “[politicians] also have an interest in making sure that the ad is not shown to an audience it will not resonate with, because there is some good evidence … that showing people a message meant for another group turns off the group it’s not meant for.”
Democrats frequently filtered their audience by their media preferences. Democrat campaigns filtered Joe Rogan’s audience out while targeting fans of NPR, Vanity Fair and Glamour. Democrats also favored more cosmopolitan viewers who consumed media in foreign languages. Republican campaigns did not use media preferences as a filter very frequently.
Democrats also sought to advertise their campaigns to fans of pop musicians Tyler Perry, Lady Gaga and Azealia Banks. They expressly excluded people who listen to Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.
Republicans sought to advertise to fans of the country music artists George Straight and Big and Rich.
Republicans also sought to advertise to fans of popular American television shows such as “Duck Dynasty” and “Shark Tank.”
Democrats sought to exclude people who shop at Bass Pro-Shop but targeted people who shop at Nordstrom, Lululemon and Zara. They also advertised to people who have groceries delivered by HelloFresh and Blue Apron.
Both parties wanted to target Walmart customers.
Republicans advertised to fans of traditional American sports, including football, basketball, hockey, baseball, tennis, hunting, fishing and car races. Republicans also targeted college athletic fans and fans of sports networks.
Democrats preferred a more cosmopolitan fan base. They targeted soccer fans, specifically fans of teams based outside of America.
