The reason behind the Harris campaign allocating $11 million towards a Facebook page boasting a mere 1,000 followers.
The ads showcased on social media platforms, marked by a generic logo resembling twin checkmarks, have been promoting articles from prominent news sources such as CNN, ABC, and NBC. These articles depict a decrease in US inflation rates, affordable insulin prices, and the consequences of state-imposed abortion bans.
However, these ads are not sponsored by any news outlet; rather, they're a result of Harris' presidential campaign, which has invested heavily in social media platforms and collaborated with influencers to enhance its online reputation against Trump.
Since Harris announced her presidential bid, her campaign has invested over $11 million on Facebook and Instagram ads, promoting The Daily Scroll, making it the second most significant page in terms of political or social issue ad spending in the past 90 days, following only her main campaign page.
Additionally, the Harris campaign spent another $900,000 on ads from a comparable news aggregator page named "Headlines 2024."
The ads promoting The Daily Scroll have been displayed on various screens over 700 million times, according to Meta's Ad Library, with approximately 97% of views originating from seven crucial battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Each ad carries a disclaimer stating, "paid for by Harris for President," and appears to adhere to Meta's guidelines for political advertisers.
The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 pages represent merely a fraction of the broader strategy to reach undecided voters across various media platforms, stated Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, to CNN. Promoting news stories is just one technique among multiple digital strategies employed by the campaign, alongside traditional online advertising and short video clips aimed at influencing voters on YouTube and other platforms.
The Harris campaign has significantly outspent the Trump campaign on Meta platforms, investing nearly $80 million since the summer, contrasting Trump's campaign and associated committees, which spent roughly $9.4 million.
Unlike the Harris campaign's main Facebook and Instagram accounts, the ads run by The Daily Scroll and Headlines 2024 do not solicit donations or direct viewers to the campaign's website. Instead, the campaign utilizes these ads to promote favorable news stories from major media outlets about the Democratic presidential nominee and their unfavorable portrayal of Trump.
Recently, the campaign has spent more than $2 million on The Daily Scroll to promote an ABC News story highlighting a significant decline in inflation, which was viewed by approximately 120 million Facebook and Instagram users in key battleground states, as per the Meta database.
"Great news for consumers – price increases have significantly reduced, as inflation hit its lowest point in over three years," the ads announced.
Other news reports promoted by the page include an NBC News article on Trump exaggerating his crowd sizes to rival those of Martin Luther King Jr., a CNN video featuring Harris speaking the day after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, and a Guardian report detailing the Project 2025 conservative policy blueprint, which aimed to "erase labor rights." The campaign invested more than $300,000 in promoting each of these reports.
Despite the numerous ads being displayed millions of times in users' feeds, the Daily Scroll account appears dormant, with only a few public posts and approximately 1,000 followers. Headlines 2024 is even more inactive, with barely 100 followers and no posts. This is because Meta permits advertisers to run ads that do not appear on the main feeds of the associated pages.
"The ads are transparently labeled as being provided by the Harris campaign; there's nothing misleading about them," noted Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, who previously worked in the Obama administration. "There's no disguised PAC associated with them."
The strategic investment in social media platforms by Harris' presidential campaign has led to a significant increase in ads promoting favorable news stories from major media outlets, aiming to shape public opinion on politics. These political ads, such as those promoting an ABC News article about reduced inflation rates, have been extensively viewed in key battleground states, impacting public discourse.
