Microtargeting
Political Ads
The amount of spending for online
campaign ads was substantially higher for this year compared to the last
election, which was expected as online ad spending in general has steadily
increased. For the past few months it seemed as though Obama was keeping me
company every time I surfed the web and Romney ads were nowhere to be found.
Once I noticed Romney’s web absence, I realized I was a victim of political
“Microtargeting”.
Political
ads take over the televisions of anyone living in a “battleground” state when
election day nears, but political ads online are much more personal. For this
year’s election, both Obama’s and Romney’s campaigns used microtargeting to
pitch personalized ads to internet users. They match data from cookies and
browsing history with lists of registered voters and are able to target you
based on age, location, ethnicity, voting history, gender, personal interests,
etc. They then group internet users accordingly and feed you political ads
based on what they believe you will want to hear. For example, if a college
student were to attempt to watch a YouTube video, they might be forced to watch
an Obama ad before the video started. This ad would most likely somehow portray
the image that the president cared about them and also encourage them to early
vote. However, had a little kid attempted to watch the same video, he might be
forced to watch a videogame advertisement. These ads can be seen all over the
web on sites such as ESPN, YouTube, Pandora, Google, Facebook, Twitter, MTV,
and Yahoo. In battleground states, Obama’s campaign even extended to EA Sports
video games such as Madden 13, and to many apps on smartphones. This all
explains why I was a victim to Obama ads while others were not. The Obama
campaign apparently viewed me as a persuadable/important vote and the Romney
campaign must have seen my vote as just the opposite.
These ads seem
to be more cost effective because they only have to pay for the ads when they
are played and the ads are only played for target markets. They are also more relevant to the
viewer and can prove to be more effective. On the other hand, many people don’t
favor the idea of these political campaigns having access to this information.
How do you feel about this use of personal information and do you think these
ads are more effective than tv commercials?
References
