October 15th 2024.
As the US presidential campaign barrels towards its final stretch, candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to sway undecided voters. In battleground states, millions of people are being targeted with ads on Facebook and Instagram from a seemingly unknown page called "The Daily Scroll."
This page, adorned with a simple logo resembling two checkmarks, has been promoting news articles from major outlets such as CNN, ABC, and NBC. These articles cover a range of topics, including the easing of US inflation, cheaper insulin prices, and the impact of state abortion bans. But what's interesting is that the page is not affiliated with any of these news outlets – it's actually a product of Harris' presidential campaign.
In an effort to gain an edge over Trump, Harris' campaign has heavily invested in social media platforms and has even collaborated with influencers to bolster their online presence. Since Harris' campaign began in the summer, they have spent over $11 million on Facebook and Instagram ads to boost The Daily Scroll's visibility. This makes it the second highest-spending page for political and social issue ads in the last 90 days, second only to Harris' main campaign page.
In addition to The Daily Scroll, the Harris campaign has also spent $1.3 million on ads from a similar page called "Headlines 2024." These ads have been shown at least 700 million times on screens, with a majority of the views coming from seven key battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. All of these ads include a disclaimer stating that they are "paid for by Harris for President" and have not violated any of Meta's rules for political advertising.
According to Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 pages are just a small part of their larger effort to reach undecided voters through various forms of media. Along with promoting news stories, the campaign is also using traditional online display ads and short video clips on platforms like YouTube to target potential voters.
Overall, the Harris campaign has spent significantly more on Meta's platforms than Trump's campaign, with a whopping $119 million spent since the summer compared to Trump's $14 million. Unlike Harris' main Facebook and Instagram accounts, the ads from The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 are not seeking donations and most of them do not direct users to the campaign's website. Instead, they are using these ads to highlight select news stories from mainstream media outlets that paint Harris in a positive light and Trump in a negative one.
For example, the campaign has spent over $3 million on The Daily Scroll to promote an ABC News story about slowing inflation – a major concern for voters leading up to the election. This particular ad was viewed about 120 million times by Facebook and Instagram users in battleground states, according to Meta's database. The ad declared, "Good news for consumers – price increases have cooled significantly as inflation reaches the lowest point in over three years."
Other news reports promoted by The Daily Scroll include an NBC News article on Trump boasting about the size of his rally crowds compared to Martin Luther King Jr.'s, a CNN video of Harris speaking the day after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, and a story from The Guardian reporting on conservative policy blueprint Project 2025, which is said to "gut labor rights." The campaign has spent over $440,000 on ads promoting each of these reports.
Despite the thousands of ads that have appeared on users' feeds hundreds of millions of times, The Daily Scroll's account itself appears inactive, with only a handful of public posts and roughly 1000 followers. Headlines 2024 is even more sparse, with only about 100 followers and no posts at all. This is because Meta allows advertisers to run ads that do not appear on the main feeds of their associated pages.
According to Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University and a former Obama administration member, there is nothing deceptive about these ads as they are clearly labeled as being paid for by the Harris campaign. He also notes that there is no generic-sounding PAC associated with them, so there is no attempt to hide their affiliation.
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