A New Bern
Doomscroll 3.24.2024
Happy Sunday and welcome to another edition of your favorite newsletter that covers all things digital on the right. And to everyone who spent the last couple of weeks posting conspiracy theories about Kate Middleton on Twitter, how does it feel to be a total asshole?
KIDDING!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about Gov. Kristi Noem’s weird influencer videos. I can pretty much sum up all the responses like this: A big ol’ collective shrug. No one really has any good guesses as to why she posted a long-ass video about a dentist in Texas or a footwear company in South Dakota (unless she was trying to make up for not posting about a SD business in the first place…), but we pretty much all agreed that it was inappropriate for a sitting government official. Shoutout to whoever suggested she needs cash and Only Fans is too risky. Anyway, time to move on.
Last week I subjected you all to a rabbit hole concerning one Adam Morgan, candidate for Congress, and his oh-so-obvious pay-for-play influencer campaign to become MAGA famous. While interesting to me, an observer and player in this space, the whole episode gave me lots more questions than answers. Like: does it bother anyone else that these influencer posts can 100% look like they’re just regular ol’ posts and not paid content? I’m a “live and let live” kinda gal, but it bugs me. I want to know if it bugs you too, so this week’s One Question is about influencer campaigns. I’m not against them in theory - at all. But should advertising policies around disclosures apply to them? Let me know what you think.
Who’s Doing What
—Feeling the (new and improved) Bern
This week’s big political news was Bernie Moreno’s huge primary win in the Ohio Senate race. As such, I figured it was time ol’ Bernie got the Doomsroll once-over. For the most part, his digital presence is legit. When it comes to social media, his campaign tapped into MAGA Twitter pretty early on, which shows. Personally, my feed was covered in Bernie Moreno content before I ever even followed the guy or knew much about him. So, that always helps. Nothing particularly stands out content-wise, although he does post the occasional face-to-camera video to talk about a news-y issue. Still, those seem to be few and far between; most of his content right now are media appearances and endorsement graphics - which I’m not knocking! But something tells me he’s got the vision and personality to do Vivek-style riffs in the backseat of his car so if Team Moreno is reading this: in this case, more is more!
I like the website - there’s really not much to critique there except for this: the giant full-screen pop-up takeover promoting his endorsement from Donald Trump. From a strategy perspective, I get it. But from a user-experience perspective, it blows. I also don’t see a merch store, which makes me sad. What I love more than anything, though? His announcement video, which I just watched for the first time. Everything about it reminds me of the beginning of a TV sitcom: the narration, the boy with the bike, the visuals…. I can’t find one thing to complain about. Normally, I knock videos that don’t feature the candidate directly on camera at least at some point…but I’m not gonna do that for Bernie. His video is just so solid. A+.
Overall, good stuff! I just want more of it.
—The REAL Trump 2.0?
Move over, Vivek and make room for Phil Lyman - the REAL Trump heir!
I’ll be honest: I hadn’t heard of the guy until I ended up on the receiving end of an email this week with the subject line: “You know me from this.” What the what? Ok: Click.
Turns out Mr. Lyman is challenging Utah Governor Spencer Cox in the June 25 primary. Aside from being a VERY MAGA-y member of the Utah House of Representatives, his claim to fame is that he was arrested in 2014 for leading a protest in Recapture Canyon. He was charged with trespassing, fined, and spent 10 days in jail. And then in December 2020, he was pardoned by President Trump. Why did he get pardoned? Who the heck knows (maybe his protest was just and good; I don’t know!), but you better believe Mr. Lyman is going to be trading off of that Trump pardon for a GOOD, LONG WHILE. Everything about his campaign screams “Vote for me because like Trump, I too have a mugshot!” The mugshot is everywhere. To be honest, I might chuckle at the comparison but I respect the hustle. I especially respect whichever staffer tried, oh so valiantly, to capitalize on a recent social media trend with this gem of a video. The execution may be more than a LITTLE off, but again: the hustle! Can’t knock it too hard. Respect the effort, otherwise it’s like knocking overweight people for being at the gym. It may not be pretty at first, but at the end of the day don’t we want them there??? Don’t we want candidates to experiment with different content? Yes, by golly, we do.
Oh - be sure and also check out his announcement video, too - if for no other reason than the fact that it uses text overlayed with the American flag in 2024.
—Kudos to Kennedy
For a while now I’ve been wanting to give a nice, Doomscroll high-five to Sen. John Kennedy and his fundraising team for no other reason than their subject lines are a constant bright spot in my inbox. And for that I am grateful. Take a peek:
2024 Roundup
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
Laurie Buckhout, who’s running for Congress in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, has a new ad. Watch it here.
American Dream PAC has an ad out hitting Jay Ashcroft for being tight with China and it’s…entirely in Chinese. Watch it here. 10 points for creativity.
A new poll this week showed Larry Hogan up double digits in the Maryland Senate race. Read more about it here. But he insists he’s the real underdog.
Vice President Marco Rubio? Don’t hate it. Read more here.
Who’s Spending Where
Between March 13 -19, the top conservative spender on Facebook ads was American for Prosperity, which spent a nice $154,000 on some new ads that promote AFP Foundation, hit Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, and go after Bidenomics. The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, Inc, spent $103,000 on ads calling on people to stand up to Jewish hate. Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee came in third place with $97,000 in ad spend, while AFP Action spent almost $83,000 on ads promoting a host of conservative candidates like Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy, and Colorado’s Jeff Crank. Rounding out the top 5 is PragerU at $68,000.
On Google during that same time period, Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee was the top spender, at $288,000. Americans for Prosperity spent $66,000, while Leadership for Ohio spent $38,000 on some pro-Frank LaRose ads in Ohio. Fourth and fifth place go to AFP Action ($28,000) and Blaze Media ($27,000.)
P2P
Industry Watch
Less political content on Instagram? Hmmm… Per Fox News:
Instagram appears to have changed users' algorithm settings to the default position of limiting political content – and users have been furiously reacting to the change online.
Meta announced on Feb. 9 that a change to both Instagram and Threads was in the works, saying in a press release that it no longer wanted to "proactively recommend" political content from accounts users don’t follow…But the February announcement did not say that all users would be automatically switched to the default position of limiting political content – which appears to have been the case over the last 48 hours, according to many users.
Also, I 100% endorse getting the Senate to declassify TikTok briefings.
The Grapevine
LOL Lauren Boehbert getting caught filming some content (see the tweet here). Slightly embarrassing, sure, but you guys: Don’t let this stop you from filming that content!
Check out the full list of 2024 Reed Award winners here. And congrats to everyone who won!
And thanks to Push Digital + Trade Desk for hosting an epic HH on Thursday in Charleston. The music was bumpin’ and the drinks were flowin’. Special double thanks to Wes for giving me the last non-alcoholic beer. Southern hospitality at its finest!
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
Semafor has an interesting write-up about the liberal influencer machine that supposedly made the “Bloodbath” Trump clip go viral last weekend. It’s worth a read, but if you' don’t have time, here’s the TL:DR:
Liberal activists have decided to monitor MAGA world like a hawk and clip anything and everything that could potentially make the former president look bad online. It’s their way of countering accounts like RNC Research, which constantly captures and posts every single Biden slip.
My question: Isn’t the mainstream media already doing this? Watching Trump’s every move to capture every “misstep” and blow it up? Do they really need help from dudes with laptops in Sarasota? I mean, maybe - maybe not. The Bloodbath moment is an interesting one to dissect. It was so obviously taken out of context that it’s possible legit reporters wouldn’t have chosen to highlight the moment had it not been for the fact that lefty influencers were already pushing it. But then I might be living in la la land, too.
From the other side of the tracks:
Hmmm… Apparently brands are starting to embrace a “back to basics” design trend. I think I like it? Here’s more:
Aubrey Burrough, a social media strategist at Dentsu Creative who works on Nutter Butter, said it’s now “becoming more commonplace for brands to start experimenting” with the form. Blake Pleasant, an art director and content creator at Dentsu Creative who has worked on social posts for the same account, considers the rise of the deep-fried brand post as a natural reaction to the ultra-polished looks that once dominated the internet.
“We see it as almost like a response to the overly curated Instagram aesthetic,” Pleasant told us. “We just feel like perfect curation feels fake, so we’ve moved beyond that, culturally, as Nutter Butter.”
Many of Nutter Butter’s social posts, which are geared toward Gen Z, can appear low-effort or inexplicable on their own, but they require more work than meets the eye.
I actually do like the basic point here: highly-curated social feeds aren’t required anymore. That sounds like a good thing for content creators - even in the political space. But the rub is in that last sentence: “they require more work than meets the eye…”
So while I’m all about keeping things simple on the design front, that doesn’t mean a lot of work ain’t involved. Just keep that in mind for any of you doing content creation for campaigns! Basic doesn’t always mean EASY.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!