An Elon Musk-funded group called Future Coalition PAC is targeting Muslim voters in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with diametrically opposed political advertisements about Kamala Harris. In areas of Michigan with relatively large Muslim populations, the Super PAC is painting Harris as a close friend of Israel and is suggesting that she is beholden to the beliefs of her Jewish husband Doug Emhoff; in parts of Pennsylvania with relatively large Jewish populations, the advertisements call Harris antisemitic and say she “support[s] denying Israel the weapons needed to defeat the Hamas terrorists who massacred thousands.”
Meanwhile, a related PAC also funded by Musk is microtargeting likely Black voters on Snapchat with ads that says Kamala Harris is trying to ban menthol cigarettes (surveys have shown that 81 percent of Black smokers use menthols, and big tobacco has disproportionately marketed menthol cigarettes to Black Americans).
What the hell is Microtargeting? Is he targeting them or not?
His PAC is targeting multiple groups separately with conflicting messages instead of advertising to users across the platform broadly with messages that don’t contain contradictions. The PAC is trying to convince everyone that Harris supports whoever they assume to be each ad recipient’s big enemy.
I assume microtargeting is messaging that is only shown to a very small number of people rather than targeting which is shown to a lot of people in the hopes that certain people will see it.
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Targeting not just Jewish people but Jewish people in a part of Pennsylvania sounds pretty “micro” to me.
It is using a very narrow set of definitions to find a group especially sensitive to a particular voting subject and targeting the ad to that micro group.
This allows you to be as specific as sending an ad to 13 year old, red headed, boys, named Ryan living in Pensacola.
Used for political goals you can make very specific ads for each group of people.