One candidate just leapfrogged the entire Dem field in ad spending
In a matter of two months, South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg has rocketed to the top of the Democratic primary in terms of Facebook spending. In this week’s issue, we’ll look at his spending spike, see the latest iteration of the Sharpie as visual criticism of President Trump, and show how the Twitter love Ariana Grande recently got from politicians all comes back to Lizzo.
Yours,
Buttigieg just leapfrogged the entire Dem field in Facebook ad spending
Two things stand out in the above gif of presidential campaign Facebook ad spending pulled from a video by Ad Spend 2020:
Trump is outspending every Democratic campaign by a margin of millions.
Buttigieg has come out of nowhere to outspend every single one of his primary opponents in a matter of two months.
Buttigieg was dead last for Facebook spending among the candidates tracked by Ad Spend 2020 as of April and didn’t cross the $1 million threshold until August. As of Tuesday morning, though, his campaign has spent more than $4.8 million.
Buttigieg went to Harvard the same time as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and was among the social network’s first 300 users. Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan have made hiring recommendations to the campaign, two of which were hired — senior digital analytics adviser Eric Mayefsky and organizing data manager Nina Wornhoff — Bloomberg reported last week.
Hundreds of Facebook employees signed a letter to Zuck
The letter, which you can read in full here, says Facebook’s policy of not fact checking politicians and allowing them to run false information “communicates that we are OK profiting from deliberate misinformation campaigns by those in or seeking positions of power,” and calls for changes.
Among the reforms employees suggested to Zuckerberg are holding political ads to the same standards as other ads, restricting advanced targeting tools for political ads, and implementing spending caps for politicians. They also singled out visual design as an area to improve.
“People have trouble distinguishing political ads from organic posts,” the letter states. “We should apply a stronger design treatment to political ads that makes it easier for people to establish context.”
Facebook employees aren’t the only ones pushing back against the company’s policies. One man is running for office so he can run false ads without consequence and test Facebook’s rules. Adriel Hampton filed to run for governor of California after an ad his group ran falsely claiming Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) supports the Green New Deal was removed from the social network. The ad was inspired by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who asked Zuckerberg during a hearing last week whether Facebook’s policies meant she could run ads falsely claiming Republicans supported the GND. Hampton tweeted he is running on a platform of regulating social media.
Yang signs Bernie’s ad firm
Media consulting firm Devine, Mulvey and Longabaugh signed on with entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s campaign last week, per Politico. DML was the team behind Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2016 “America” ad and his 2020 announcement video, but parted with Sanders in February, saying he “deserves to have media consultants who share his creative vision for the campaign.” DML partner Mark Longabaugh told Politico that Yang offers “the most progressive ideas.”
Yang announced Monday his campaign’s first ads will be airing in early states. Titled “Not the First,” the ad calls for a move to a Medicare for All system, highlighting Yang’s child who has autism and the costs families with autistic or special needs children face.
A tale of two situation room photos
Following the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Saturday, the White House released photos of President Trump in the Situation Room monitoring U.S. Special Operations forces closing in. Reaction to the images, taken by White House photographer Shealah Craighead, were like a foreign policy version of Trump’s inauguration photo; it was immediately compared to former President Obama’s.
While the inauguration comparison had to do with size, the mission-monitoring-in-the-Situation-Room comparison had to do with perceived authenticity. In the Craighead pics, the photos were taken head on and Trump is the center of focus, as opposed to Pete Souza’s photo the night of the raid against Osama bin Laden, which showed Obama off to the side.
Despite the tangled mess of ethernet cables, Trump’s photo looks more like a photo-op, while Obama’s gives more a sense of a moment in time. Then-Secretary of State Clinton has her hand over of her mouth and on the desk in front of her sits a classified document that had to be obscured for the photo to be released.
The photos weren’t the only things that were compared. Jimmy Kimmel looked at Obama’s speech announcing the bin Laden news vs. Trump’s announcing the al-Baghdadi news, and it is something.
About that border wall…
Trump said last Wednesday he’s building a wall on the borders of New Mexico, Texas, and… Colorado (but not Kansas, he said) during remarks in Pittsburgh, Penn., and no one had any idea what he was talking about. Trump later tweeted he mentioned Colorado “kiddingly” and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) poked fun at the gaffe, tweeting out the above Sharpie-edited map.
Republicans react to Jesus Is King
Kanye West released his ninth studio album Jesus Is King Friday, and some Republicans have given it rave reviews. Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) tweeted about the “richness of the biblical allusions” that he heard “woven beautifully & artfully into every song.” Donald Trump Jr. sounded like he hadn’t actually listened to the record and only knows about West inasmuch as he talks about politics, claiming the album featured “dangerous, unapproved” ideas (literally no one is saying this). Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), a noted rap fan who tweets Bible verses on the reg, has noticeably not weighed in. Tweets to Rubio and a request for comment to his office were not returned. The record was also praised by MAGA Twitter figures.
Democratic socialists for Ari
Ariana Grande got shoutouts from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez Friday, something she said she “won’t be getting over … any time ever.” Sanders responded to a tweet of Grande’s by saying he was “Ready to fight for Medicare for All,” followed by the above “Progressive policies as an Ariana dance party” tweet from Ocasio-Cortez.
No disrespect to Ari, who I love deeply, but please note this all started because she tweeted “baby how u feelin,” a line from her “Good as Hell” remix with Lizzo. The Lizzo primary is real.
Chance the Rapper backs strike
Chance the Rapper showed his support for the Chicago teachers strike on “Saturday Night Live,” wearing a Chicago Teachers Union sweatshirt and telling the teachers during his monologue, “I fully support you.” The strike began October 17.
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There have been plenty of peach and mint puns since the impeachment inquiry began, including the Library of Congress cafeteria, which had peach mint crumb cake earlier this month. But do peach and mint even go together?
I’m not really a mint guy, and I recently tweeted that I didn’t think they did. All the responses I got were people telling me I was wrong, though, so I decided to test it out for myself.