I don’t know about you, but lately it feels like political campaigns are following me around like a bad ex. Every time I open YouTube, there they are. I scroll through Instagram? Same candidate. I’m just trying to watch a recipe video, and boom, another 30-second campaign ad. It’s gotten to the point where I almost flinch before clicking play on anything.
What used to be mostly TV and radio spots, or the occasional mailer stuffed in the mailbox, has exploded into a non-stop digital assault. Now we’ve got social media ads, middle of the video ads, podcast interruptions, emails, texts, even ads showing up in the middle of news articles like pop-up ads from hell. It’s like no matter where I go online, someone’s campaign manager is sitting behind the curtain yelling, “Don’t forget to vote for us!” on loop.
Now, I get it, campaigning is about visibility, especially in highly contested races and I know these ads work on some level or they wouldn’t keep spending millions on them. In the best cases, they remind people to engage with the issues or introduce a candidate to someone who might not know much about them. But in the worst cases? They’re repetitive, negative, manipulative, and a bit annoying. It made me wonder if anyone has gotten less interested in a candidate simply because they are sick of seeing their face five times an hour.
We discuss this in the latest episode of Nuance in regards to NYC, where you get not only ads from candidates in your area but due to the tri-state area being the same market, you get ads from candidates in New Jersey that you can’t even vote for since you live in New York.
Anyone else annoyed? Have excessive campaign ads ever turned you against a candidate?
Additional:
Political campaign ad fatigue is real
Voters experience fatigue from political ad campaigns
