Most of the money in politics in America is spent on advertising.
A lot of what you see is designed to provoke a reaction out of you.
Whether it's Coke or Pepsi or the president all of those things
can be sold to consumers or voters.
I'm Ciara Torres-Spelliscy.
I'm a professor at Stetson Law and a Fellow at the Brennan Center.
My name is Leslie Miley. I'm the former Chief Technical Officer of the Obama Foundation.
I've also held engineering leadership roles at Twitter, Slack, and Google.
Branding is a very well-known tactic in marketing to define a narrative
and the narrative may not necessarily be true.
Political branding is trying to sell you a candidate,
a political party, or sometimes just a concept that will be used in public policy. It creates
what can be a false image of who the person is and what they stand for. The public is much more
likely to believe a piece of branding if it comes through a network of trust. It's easy to believe
things that are coming from what you consider a trusted source. And if someone is trying to
manipulate you, like a politician trying to get your vote, then they will use that network of trust.
We now have micro targeting that is done through digital platforms. You have ads
that show up on different social media platforms -- those can be targeted to specific users.
They will use that to get you messages that are tailored to try to sway the way that you behave
in the next election. Micro targeting is like your best friend who knows everything about
you -- they know what you want for your birthday, they know what you like to eat. The difference
between micro targeting and your best friend is that your best friend is generally looking out
for what's best for you. They can literally target a message to a particular voter in the hopes of
swaying their vote. You might have a different message for people who are registered Democrats
than registered Republicans than registered Independents or people who are not registered with
any party. Micro targeting is i want an 18-to-21 demographic of this income, of this ethnicity,
in these zip codes. You might not even see the same ad over the course of an election cycle.
So you're probably being hit with like a number of targeted ads, all of them slightly different. It is
highly targeted. It is in some cases down to the block, and that should be something that concerns
all of us because it can amplify people's opinions and their misinformation in ways that we've never
seen before. It increases the temptation for the politician to lie to the public. They will just lie
in a different way to different voters. For example a classic type of disinformation that you could
microtarget is the message that the election has been moved to Wednesday. And the reason why that's
so pernicious is we always vote on Tuesday. And by voter suppression I don't mean people standing in
front of the polls. I mean misinformation being targeted towards communities of color that the
polls are closed, or that you need a certain amount of ID, or that the date has changed. This type
of advertising, this type of microtargeting to communities -- particularly communities who
may be on the margin -- is highly problematic. I would especially warn young voters that if they
see a political ad which encourages them to either skip the election or to not vote at all, to take
those particular messages and, you know, throw them in the garbage bin of history.
It's complex. It's complicated. It's confusing. Yet we can only make informed choices.
Navigating political ads online can seem complicated but here are some tips:
Number one: Be aware that you are being targeted as a voter. You should know that they have an incentive to
not be as truthful as possible. Some of these ads will look like content shared from your friend.
Pay attention, be aware, read the fine print... Number two: Be aware of misinformation and disinformation online.
Misinformation can be pernicious it can be hidden. It can be right in front of you as
something that you may be interested in. You should be very cautious if you see things like elections
being moved, polling places being moved, if it is in a paid political advertisement. Number three: Fact
check any political ad before you believe what it says. Ads that are microtargeted to voters
have a high probability of containing either misinformation or lies. Take a moment to check your
sources and see if this is something that is true. And number four: Be thoughtful, be informed, and be
aware before you vote. Think critically but don't become cynical. Get your information from a variety
of sources, and ask questions, and follow the trail of where the information comes from. My best advice
for young voters is to vote! Definitely vote. The election is the way that we distribute political
power in the United States. Your vote is your voice. Don't get caught up in the emotional side
of what's being put in front of you. Get caught up in the change you want to see, and run with that.