Posted on 11/22/2016 6:44:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If you were watching The Walking Dead this season and thought, "I sure am seeing a lot of ads for Donald Trump," it's because you actually were.
In an interview from Forbes, Jared Kushner, head of Trump's campaign data, explained that he created a unique program to reach certain audiences. Instead of spending money on ads for most of television, this program found out what people in each area liked about Trump's campaign, what TV shows they watched, and correlated the two.
Kushner's dialogue here got fairly technical, but Forbes helped make the strategy a little easier on the eyes.
Kushner’s crew was able to tap into the Republican National Committee’s data machine, and it hired targeting partners like Cambridge Analytica to map voter universes and identify which parts of the Trump platform mattered most: trade, immigration or change. Tools like Deep Root drove the scaled-back TV ad spending by identifying shows popular with specific voter blocks in specific regions–say, NCIS for anti-ObamaCare voters or The Walking Dead for people worried about immigration. Kushner built a custom geo-location tool that plotted the location density of about 20 voter types over a live Google Maps interface.
Basically, this program found out that people who watched The Walking Dead, and lived in certain areas, were more likely to agree with Trump on his immigration policies. Therefore, they heavily ran immigration ads during The Walking Dead.
This strategy hadn't been seen in politics before, but it turned out to be quite successful. When the next election rolls around, expect more candidates to adopt a similar strategy.
The election may be over now, but don't think that means The Walking Dead will have fewer commercials. They will still be there, in bulk, just about candy bars and SUVs instead of political candidates.
Reminds me of “Better Call Saul” when he runs his Senior Law ads. “Okay - so 15 minutes in and yet again there’s been another murder in Cabot’s Cove. The retirees have settled in with their warm milk and a cookie....”
There was a street artist out in Hollywood putting up signs after the first episode with Neegan.
Something like “Neegan only wants half of all your sh&*. Hillary will take all of it.”
Typical FReeper response, "I don't watch this show so nobody else must either."
Fact is, millions of Americans tune in to The Walking Dead each week, particularly Trump's key demographic of 18-49 year-old blue-collar white males.
I’d watch it but I have zombie issues. Daryl’ s da MAN!!!
See all those “heroes” standing around doing nothing? They should all be fired.
Long before “Walking Dead” aired, among gun owners “zombie” was code for “bad guy” and “zombie apocalypse” was code for “when the underclass riots reach our neighborhoods”.
This is interesting. The Prepper vote.
LOL! He hit a venue with a lot of viewers - not like he hit the weather channel during a hurricane....
I’ve thought it wise on the part of those in charge of the Walking Dead to STAY OUT of politics as much as possible....So far I don’t recall any ridiculous Tweets or statements coming from the people making the show.
Sometimes the most disturbing and poignant part of the show is the music.
It’s a love hate relationship.
They live in a true total right wing world. No government what so ever.
They live in world the individual can’t control and your own personal response can have grave consequences.
No ruling elites to tell you what to do and say they will save you.
Sorta like our early colonist or frontiersmen who foraged west. (on weird steroids. or whatever. Zombies to get the point across.)
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