Twitter Kills Political Ads • Digital Video vs TV • Email Fundraising

So Twitter has banned political ads? Good job it’s a relatively small fry in spending terms - receiving only 1/23 of political ad spend that Facebook has received since 2008. Small. Potatoes.

But it still raises questions and concerns for the industry.

The ban does nothing to address the much larger problem of bots and disinformation.

And if you ban ads while failing to tackle bots, you make the problem of bots much worse. Per Colin Delany of Epolitics:

"Let’s say you’re under attack from a bot-net or other disinformation campaign. Now you can’t buy promoted tweets to counter it." 😬

Free speech? Republican Shannon Chatlos of Strategic Partners & Media worries the decision sets a bad precedent:

"What they’re doing is really dangerous. The majority of the American electorate spends an enormous amount of time on social media [and] communicating with voters and constituents about candidates, issues, and policy positions, where they spend time, is critical."

And what if Facebook were to follow suit? We’ve posed this question before. And Facebook’s list of ‘pros’ for pulling the plug can only be growing.

Where would the existing spend allocated to Facebook go? And would all of it be reallocated to other digital platforms? And which side would be hurt most by Facebook pulling out? Democrat Tara McGowan of ACRONYM was unambiguous:

"Unpopular but incredibly important to note: if @facebook eliminates political digital advertising right now it would give one side + candidate an enormous advantage in the election + I’ll give you a hint: it won’t be ours."

All that said, kudos to Twitter for outflanking Facebook in the court of public opinion.

We’re inching closer to the first votes of the Democratic primary race and the field remains pretty darn large. And in online fundraising terms that means campaigns need to throw a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

In C&E this week, we asked some digital strategists which of the email fundraising tactics we’ve seen this year might have staying power + some applicability down-ballot.

Some quick takeaways:

The Threat: Is the ‘we need to raise this amount of money or I’m dropping out of the race’ tactic effective? It was for Cory Booker so Julian Castro tried it, too. But down-ballot it’s probably much trickier given there’s far less attention on your typical Congressional race.

The Cash Prize: Andrew Yang pledged to "personally" give "up to 10" winners of a campaign sweepstakes $1,000 a month for a year. Yang called it a "Freedom Dividend." It’s on message, but people who know campaign finance have said it’s a gray area at best.

The Contest: This one isn’t exactly new, but we’ve seen a lot of it from Dem presidential campaigns this year. The only concern bringing this down the ballot: Make sure you actually deliver what was promised. If it’s just a ploy ahead of a deadline or to boost a single fundraising campaign, it could run afoul of campaign finance law.

The latest analysis by Common Sense Media paints a very rosy picture for those who want to see digital spending by campaigns grow (and put TV spending into a distant second place). Highlights:

69% of 13 to 18-year-olds watch online video every day vs 34% in 2015.
Seven and a half hours. That’s how long the same age group spends on digital screens (and that excludes time spent for schoolwork).
Only 33% of the age group say they enjoy watching TV a lot. A stark decline from 45% in 2015.

Sure they can’t vote yet. And even when they do vote they won’t vote that much because, well, young people are low propensity. But the long term trend is clear: if you aren’t super bullish on digital you’re wrong.

The Women Running Presidential Campaigns Give Us a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Life on the Trail (Marie Claire)

From bus stops to private jets, the power players behind the 2020 campaigns for president give an inside look at their nonstop lives on the trail.

An Activist’s Gimmick Shows How Facebook’s Political Ads Policy
is Full of Holes (MIT Technology Review)

Facebook allows candidates to lie in ads. Consultant Adriel Hampton registers as candidate to run lying ads. Facebook stops him running those ads.

Dissent Erupts at Facebook Over Hands-Off Stance on Political Ads
(The New York Times)

Spoiler: Facebook employees are not happy about the company’s decision to let politicians lie in ads.