by Lee Fang
The sudden withdrawal of President Joe Biden as a democratic presidential candidate last year, and then his replacement with the vice president of Kamali Harris, annoyed many voters omitted in this process. However, social media seemed to emit enthusiasm and cordial to the H Hipster Appeal.
Influentially flooded the neon networkmatch Green Pro-Harris films synchronized with the Beats from the album of the singer Charli XCX “Brother” released last year. Poppy Rave Movies, ejacled journalists, showed that Harris probably embodied the independent climate of “Bachor” passed on by the music. Pages in social media bubbled memes celebrating Harris as a voice of strange and black youth, unlike the Republican White Supremacja Program. In one viral film Tiktok, the digital creator Amelia Montooth (pictured above) was involved in a series of “daily” classes – among them kissing a woman, arranging an abortion and looking for pornography – works it sketch It was suggested that he would be banned if Harris lost the election.
Harris, a professional politician favored by the Establishment of the Democratic Party, never matches the bill as an icon of activist movements. But the sudden influential buzz seemed to transform a mighty former prosecutor into the icon of the cultural Zeitgeist.
As it turns out, the wave of enthusiasm of the tidal was not completely real. Many content, including Montoth movies, was quietly financed by the elusive group of democratic billionaires and the main donors in consultation aimed at hiding the payments of voters.
Realclearinvestigations obtained internal WhatsApp documents and messages from democratic strategists behind the Influencer campaign. The way of winning, one of the main groups of donors behind this effort, spent over $ 9.1 million on influential social media during the presidential election in 2024 – payments disclosed here for the first time. The amount was advertised in a document widespread after the election describing the achievements of the organization.
Efforts were supported by over 550 content creators, who published 6644 posts on various platforms, Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and X. The way to win the trained creators for expressions, publishing areas and key topics of “disseminating the content of pro kamali content throughout the cycle,” Memo from the group was noted.
Looking at the curtain reveals that at least some of the images around Harris’s candidacy were carefully organized by the same types of secret marketing in social media, often used by corporate brands and interest groups. Such campaigns provide the illusion of ecological support through the real charm of trusted voices on social media.
The way of winning, in internal messages, advertised his work from the stable influence and activists related to the Democratic Party, including Harry Sisson, Emily Amick, Kate Abu and Dash Dobrofsky. The group also explicitly practiced “non-political creators”- influential Usually known from vlogs of travelers, comedy skits or cooking recipes-they were instilled in “positive, specific content of pro-kamal”, which was “integral in setting a tone on the internet and driving additional organic digital support”. The effort often took the form of conversations that were quickly distributed to the creators on the web.
“Bro, who is Tim Walz,” said @abeetheartist, one of the creators of Tiktok supported by victory. “He is a football coach, it’s difficult”, influential further. “It’s time for the Republicans to give up, it doesn’t look good for you!”
In a series of internal presentations on the Influencer campaign, the way of winning emphasized the approach based on data. “We know what the messengers work,” noted Liz Jaff, a strategist of the brand working with Way to Way, during a conversation with donors last year. She referred to the exploit of a focus group based on artificial intelligence developed by Future Forward, the main Harris campaign.
JAFF also explained the process of developing calling points that can be put into organic messages and social media posts. “Then we convey it influential who take it into their own words,” continued Jaff. “Then we test these films and see what should be strengthened,” she added, referring to paid media efforts to strengthen specific Tiktok films or privileged streamers.
However, the lofty promises of mastering messages were often not enough. The way of winning directly financed a series of awkward programs on YouTube and the liberal identity of social media policy designed to augment voters to support the Harris and Democrats campaign. There is little evidence that such funds have moved a significant number of voters during elections in which the Democrats lost historical levels of support from key district groups – voting of youth, Latinos and black men It will intensify significantly Donald Trump last year, increasing the decades of voting patterns.
Ilana Glazer, a comedian who played at the Comedy Central Show Broad City, was given a way to win the financing of a series of election films called “Microdosing Democracy”, in which she ended up Harris endlessly as she ended up illuminated Marijuana fliff. Another series of Tiktok and Instagram supported by donors, entitled “Gaydar”, contains interviews quiz People on the streets of New York about curiosities of gay culture with a petite content related to elections.
The way to win was also financed by a caravan with inflatable insert to Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Raleigh, St. Louis and other locations. The route, in which the creators produce posts along the way, was designed to draw attention to the claim that Trump would prohibit contraceptive devices.
In an apparent attempt to augment Harris’s support among black men, the way of winning was directly financed by the Talk Show in the style of interview on YouTube called Watering Hole Media.
“I heard my brother tells me:” Man, I did not know that I would be excited when Kamala was chosen, “said Jeff Johnson, and Managing director with the Actum LLC lobbying company, which worked as a host Down Watering Hole Media number “Touch”.
“One brother said:” I’m not even sure why, “continued Johnson. “No, seriously, he said:” When I look at her, she reminds me of my aunt “and I said yes, so there is this common song.”
The discussion, recorded at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August last year, buzzed about the “line” from the Black Panther to the Nation of Islam to Harris’s nomination, which suggests that her candidacy represented another moment in radical black politics.
The way to sponsored the media group sponsored by a lot of similar discussions, trying to go to the candidacy of Harris with appeals to racial identity policy.
Despite the well -financed efforts, few tuned up. Seven video programs produced in DNC collectively won less than 1000 views. One film had less than 40 spectators.
Questions were carried out by decisions regarding the expenditure on the campaign from Harris and its supporting organizations. The Harris and its superpac campaign spent over $ 1.5 billion in the last months of the campaign, and most of the money flowed to consultants and media advertising. Alex Cooper, who hosted Harris for an interview at her podcast “Call Her Daddy”, was surprised About why the campaign has spent about 100,000 USD on the transient set of “cardboard”, which “was not so nice”. Others raised similar fears about payments in the Oprah Winfrey production company.
“Our program creator 2024 achieved key recipients with almost a billion views, but there are more to do, and we use lessons from the last cycle,” said the spokesman winning in a statement for the RCI.
“Sometimes there are moments in presidential campaigns when there is no cost control,” noted Mike Mikus, a democratic strategist in Pennsylvania. “The biggest question is whether they had any empirical evidence that this message will work.”
Payments occupy a hazy area of ​​electoral law. The way of winning funds via non -profit corporations that paid various influential talent agencies – companies such as palette management and vocal media. The money was not listed in the portals of disclosing information about the Federal Electoral Commission, which show political funds spent during the campaign.
While television or radio advertising requires discretion, which show groups responsible for paying for advertising, there are no equivalent seats for Tiktok stars or personality on Instagram, which receive payment to promote the content related to elections. Despite some attempts to reform regulations regarding the transparency of elections, minimal progress was made. FEC was banned from trying to create fresh rules for governing the influential space, leaving the entire medium practically unlawful regarding cash in the campaign.
The way of winning several entities and corporations, most of which do not reveal donors. The group did not respond to the request for a comment for more information in this respect. However, the cache of the Documents regarding the Influencer campaign indicated some tips. The way of winning was the host of a series of events only for the donor in San Francisco and Washington, with representatives of the Open Society Foundation, a charity organization supported by the investor billionaire George Soros. OSF did not answer the request for comment.
Democrats are almost not alone in Payola for influencing people. Republican campaigns have used Several hundred thousand dollars for similar marketing agencies in social media that advertise the ability to send content with popular X and Tiktok accounts.
But the attempt to effort Pro-Kamal Harris 2024 is unprecedented. To win, the group justified the madness of expenses as the only way to compete with Pro-Trump voices and popular podcasts, such as Joe Rogan, which avoided the Harris campaign.
“Our goal this year was to combat conservative domination of content on Instagram and Tiktoku. We did it” – it was stated in a triumphal note of donors after the election.
“If more Americans got the media from Instagram and Tiktok”, the December note argued: “Kamala Harris will be another president of the United States.”
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Lee Fang is a factor contributing to Realclearinvestigations.
Picture of Amelia Montooth by Amelia Montooth.
