In the days leading up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, YouTube's homepage will reportedly be advertising only one candidate: Donald Trump.
The impeached president’s re-election campaign bought out YouTube's costly advertising space for early November, and the deal ensures Trump will be all anyone sees on Google's YouTube during the critical days when voters get ready to head to the polls on November 3, reports Bloomberg News:
While the bulk of digital ad spending typically focuses on targeting specific messages to certain audiences, the top spot on YouTube is more akin to a Super Bowl TV ad. About three-quarters of U.S. adults say they use YouTube, exceeding the reach of even Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center.
Ads on the YouTube masthead—as the video on the top of the homepage is known—generally run for an entire day. The exact duration of Trump’s ad buy and financial details were unclear, but estimates for the space range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $1 million a day.
YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, lets advertisers target users based on a variety of factors, though it recently limited those options for political content. The Trump campaign bought the digital real estate nationwide, one of the people familiar with the deal said, both of whom asked not to be identified.
Read more at Bloomberg News, Business Insider, and CJR. [via MediaGazer]
Donald Trump’s re-election committee will take over YouTube’s homepage in early November in the immediate run up to Election Day through advertising space it has purchased from the Google streaming video website. (Via @technology) https://t.co/khsdzPrKIS
— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) February 21, 2020
In the immediate run up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, the homepage of YouTube is set to advertise just one candidate: Donald Trump@mhbergen @joshuabrustein
Read: https://t.co/KvmLw5lbU9 pic.twitter.com/tvjswPc1lM
— BloombergQuint (@BloombergQuint) February 21, 2020
On Election Day and immediately before, the homepage of YouTube is set to advertise ONLY one candidate — Donald Trump. https://t.co/VBsyW0bVjb
— 𝙰𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎 (@DemocracyJourno) February 21, 2020
People replying to this telling people to boycott YouTube are wild…
Instead of being mad at YT for selling homepage to trump campaign, be mad at the DNC, Priorities or Bloomberg for not buying it months ago
(by the way…the YT homepage has been sold to campaigns since '12) https://t.co/mBzYIAqNOB
— Anton Vuljaj (@anton) February 21, 2020
Donald Trump secured prime real estate on Election Day for one of the most coveted advertising spots on the internet: YouTube's homepage https://t.co/vHR9vtHkrb
— Mark Milian (@markmilian) February 21, 2020
Pay attention. There is a lot more of this happening right now on MULTIPLE sites. https://t.co/sH6QqxmYWa
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) February 21, 2020
"One potential policy discussed inside Google was to disallow masthead ads on Election Day in favor of a nonpartisan banner reminding Americans to vote….Ultimately, Google decided to keep its standard practice in place." https://t.co/0on6r0At7X
— Lauren Naturale (@lnaturale) February 21, 2020
That this is even possible says a lot about Google in general https://t.co/TepHc2Q695
— Matthew Lynley (@mattlynley) February 21, 2020
In the immediate run up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, the homepage of YouTube is set to advertise just one candidate: Donald Trump.
great scoop @mhbergen @joshuabrustein https://t.co/UAGh9xlal4— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) February 21, 2020
