{"id":4181,"date":"2020-10-08T15:22:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=4181"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:57","slug":"analysis-cawthorn-employs-a-national-ad-strategy-while-davis-stays-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/10\/08\/analysis-cawthorn-employs-a-national-ad-strategy-while-davis-stays-local\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: Cawthorn employs a national ad strategy while Davis stays local"},"content":{"rendered":"
The poetry of American politics is now written in emojis and hashtags.\u00a0<\/span>In North Carolina\u2019s 11th Congressional District, the emojis are wavy American flags and the hashtags are Western North Carolina towns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The animated star-spangled banners belong to Madison Cawthorn, the Republican candidate, who uses the icons in subtle national calls for financial support to galvanize potential donors who don\u2019t even live in his district. That red, white, and blue might work particularly well among the GOP donor pool. A 2007<\/span> Pew Research Center <\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>report showed that 73% of Republicans say they display the flag at home, in their office, or on their car, while only 55% of Democrats do.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In contrast, the Facebook ads Democrat Moe Davis directs to voters within his district come complete with hashtags denoting local cities and photo backdrops of Western North Carolina\u2019s rolling blue mountains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although one might expect the 37-year age gap between the congressional candidates to be reflected in their ad campaigns on Facebook, each candidate employs their own savvy strategy to target their intended audience \u2014 one national, one local.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The two candidates primarily focus their advertising on Facebook, investing much more money on the platform than Google and Youtube. Davis is also running ads on WLOS-TV. At the time of publishing, Cawthorn had spent $163,756 on Facebook, and Davis had spent $36,816.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cawthorn: A National Approach<\/b><\/p>\n The moment President Donald Trump phoned Cawthorn from Air Force One to call his primary win \u201cbeautiful\u201d was the moment Cawthorn launched his pro-Trump brand as a valiant warrior against \u201cradical leftists.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPro-Trump, Pro-Life, Pro-Gun, Pro-Law Enforcement,\u201d read the caption of <\/span>one ad posted in August<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Cawthorn\u2019s appeal to Republicans on a broader, national level is evident in his villainization of high-profile Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez make more appearances in Cawthorn\u2019s Facebook ads than Davis does. One ad pictures Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez with Rep. Ilhan Omar, all covered in a monochromatic blood-red hue while posing adjacent to a photo of Mount Rushmore. \u201cAdd your name to fight back against the mob!\u201d the caption reads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n