Colorado’s January Ad Spend Wrapped
The election year is hurtling forward at a breakneck pace, providing a prime opportunity to dissect the major Meta's ad spending players in Colorado. Join me as I muse about a few noteworthy January spenders and their content.
The Biden campaign emerges as the leading spender, funneling over $61,000 into Meta ads in just one month. What’s worth mentioning is that the Biden comms team is doing ‘ugly ads’ to appear hip. Their ads consist of just a few sentences in the Notes App with simple white text on a colorful gradient, even going so far as appealing to younger attention spans by starting this ad “This message is four sentences.” A large majority of the ads also are anti-Trump, showing footage of the January 6th insurrection and other Trump-adjacent iconography. The Trump-ness does jump out at you when you see all his ads side to side.
Patients for Affordable Drugs has placed over $8,659 in ads trying to build their SMS list of people “joining the fight” against big pharma and rising prescription drug prices. Glad they made the list.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spent $7,140 in his push to make the national ballot. Most of his ads are links to sell RFK Jr. merch which says all that needs to be said about his presidential odds, though this cup is admittedly cute.
Liberty Defender Group – a right-wing pro-Trump patriot death cult – made a hefty $8,502 spend. I have no idea how it has a functional Meta ad account and most of their 3,700 ads revolve around information-harvesting, luring users with offers like free Trump gold coins or post-apocalyptic survival backpacks (just cover the $4.95 shipping). In return, they want your personal information so they can… let Trump know you support him? If it sounds sketch, it’s because it is (which is why I’m not providing links.)
While my fascination with right-wing ads might stem from finding them absurd and clownish, it's crucial to acknowledge the fact that white supremacist language can find a platform on Meta and be disseminated with legitimate ad dollars is, frankly, terrifying. I laugh to dull the pain.
The extreme right-wing, pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC has placed $6,429 worth of ads, continuing to beat the war drums even as a majority of Americans support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. AIPAC’s Meta ads are doing what they are supposed to: build their lists and carry that support to their lobbying strategy. No mention of the 26,000+ Gazans dead. No suggestion of a road to peace and no mention of stopping the massacre and humanitarian crisis. It’s a brutal reality that the money AIPAC is spending is infinitely more than any ceasefire messaging can ever hope to spend online. Here is where I shout out Women’s March for recently running ceasefire ads in Colorado.
Lastly, Jeff Hurd’s, Republican candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, ran 28 ads in January totaling $6,231. The Hurd campaign looked to have two messages: inflation and anti-immigration (conservative classics). My favorite detail of their ads is that they targeted people interested in “Duck Commander,” “Mike Rowe,” and “Duck Dynasty” (ditto). Someone on the Hurd team might have gotten lazy as some of their headlines showed images demanding to ‘secure our border’ while asking if they had an inflation problem.
Because the dollar fuels ideas online, far-right advertisers can coexist with those considered status quo while leaving progressive voices out of the mix. It all comes down to who has the money in hand to spend on ads. And through one month, my curated list might give you an idea of who’s playing with house money.
Hec Salas-Gallegos
Digital Engagement Manager