Democrats may be playing it too safe when it comes to political advertising, The New York Times reports.
Laura Edelson, a researcher at New York University who tracks political advertising on Facebook, compared President Trump's re-election campaign to a "supercar" and the Democrats to a "little Volkswagen Bug," which is particularly harsh considering Volkswagen discontinued production of its famous Beetle model in July. While the Trump campaign has been aggressive in rolling out ads, testing content, and selling merchandise, experts say many Democratic campaigns are trying to sway moderates and offend as few people as possible.
"We see much less of that kind of experimentation with the Democratic candidates," Edelson said.
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Part of the problem, the Times reports, may be generational. Some digital operatives say the aging professional political class is too timid and less open to new ideas. The digital director of a prominent Democratic presidential candidate was reportedly once shut down by an older consultant when trying to implement "shorter, pithier" ads that would get more internet traffic. "We don't need any of your cinéma vérité clickbait," the consultant reportedly said to director.
That apparently wasn't a one-off example, either — several campaigns reportedly have dealt with similar disagreements over tone. "It's true that anodyne messaging doesn't turn anyone off," said Elizabeth Spiers, who runs the Insurrection, a progressive digital strategy and polling firm. "But it doesn't turn them on either." Read more at The New York Times.
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