The presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are actively targeting undecided voters in battleground states through social media ads on Facebook and Instagram. A page called “The Daily Scroll” has been promoting news articles from mainstream outlets like CNN, ABC, and NBC, focusing on topics such as easing US inflation, cheaper insulin prices, and state abortion bans. These ads are being funded by Harris’ campaign, which has spent over $11 million on Facebook and Instagram ads for The Daily Scroll, making it the second biggest spender on political or social issue ads in the last 90 days.
In addition to The Daily Scroll, the Harris campaign also spent $900,000 on ads from another news aggregator page called “Headlines 2024.” These ads have been shown at least 700 million times on screens, with the majority of views coming from battleground states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. All ads include a disclaimer that they are paid for by Harris for President and do not violate Meta’s rules for political advertisers. These news aggregator pages are part of a broader effort by the campaign to target undecided voters through various digital strategies across different platforms.
The Harris campaign has significantly outspent the Trump campaign on Meta’s platforms, with nearly $80 million spent on ads compared to Trump’s $9.4 million since the summer. The ads from The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 are not aimed at soliciting donations but rather promote news stories that reflect positively on Harris and negatively on Trump. For example, the campaign spent over $2 million on promoting an ABC News story about slowing inflation, which was viewed around 120 million times by Facebook and Instagram users in battleground states.
The ads promoted by The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 include news reports from major media outlets like NBC News, CNN, and The Guardian. These reports cover a range of topics such as Trump’s crowd sizes, remarks made by Harris after Biden dropped out of the race, and a conservative policy blueprint that could impact labor rights. Despite the widespread reach of these ads, the social media accounts associated with The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 have very few followers and minimal public posts, as Meta allows advertisers to run ads that don’t appear on the main feeds of their associated pages.
According to Peter Loge, a media and public affairs expert, the ads funded by the Harris campaign are clearly labeled and not deceptive. There is no generic-sounding PAC associated with them, indicating transparency in their messaging. The campaign is utilizing a combination of digital strategies, including traditional online display ads, short video clips on YouTube, and news aggregator pages, to target voters in battleground states effectively. This approach reflects the campaign’s focus on reaching undecided voters and influencing their perception of both Harris and Trump through curated news content.
