The future of politics is unpolished and direct-to-camera
A pair of ads from the Biden and Trump campaigns that are both running on YouTube this week share the same goal: to grow their campaign contact lists. They go about doing so in two different ways, though.
The Trump campaign’s “Happy Birthday President Trump!” ad stars President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump who asks viewers to sign a birthday card. According to Google’s ad library, the campaign has spent more than $300,000 on this ad since May 31 ahead of Trump’s birthday on Sunday.
Lara Trump, a senior adviser for the campaign, is a former television producer for “Inside Edition,” and you can hear it in her distinctive sing-songy cadence. Her overexaggerated inflections rise and then fall at the end of each sentence. She’s speaking the way TV news reporters are taught to speak on camera and once you notice it you can’t unnotice it.
Compare that with the Biden campaign’s “Add Your Name” ad. The campaign has spent more than $400,000 on this ad since May 31.
Former Vice President Biden appears to be buttoning his suit jacket as the ad begins. He repeats “I’d like ta, I’d like ta” before saying “… join my campaign,” with his inflection going up and a smile.
These imperfections in his delivery make it seem like a warm-up. Biden sounds like he’s trying out his lines for a first or second time, as opposed to nailing it perfectly on a later take.
A Biden campaign aide told Yello that direct-to-camera ads are common and that the campaign gets its best responses from fundraising ads that are authentic.
“Whether it be a direct-to-camera fundraising ask, a message to supporters, or a video of a candid rope line moment, we have seen the strongest responses to our digital program when it reflects Joe Biden's values: simple, direct, and authentic,” the aide said in an email.
Sounding like an actual human
In the past week, I’ve been served these Biden and Trump ads on YouTube a lot, and as with most ads, I usually click “skip” as soon as possible to get on with my video. With the Biden ad, though, I found myself hesitating.
Biden delivers the rest of the ad flawlessly, but those opening moments that sound less than rehearsed all come in the first five seconds before YouTube allows viewers to click away. Those brief imperfections are what made my ears perk up. It sounds different and friendlier that the typical ominous voices or predictable cadences we’re used to hearing in political ads, and it’s certainly different than the Trump ad.
While Lara Trump sounds like a robot, Biden sounds like a human.
It’s more than just the way these two ads sound that sets them apart. The Trump ad looks like someone did a stock video search for the terms “America” and “birthday” and pulled results from page one, while Biden filmed in front of his now familiar basement bookcase.
Their approaches to list building are different too. Biden is straight forward. He says “join me” and the ad links to a page asking users to enter their contact information and click “Add My Name” to submit.
Meanwhile, the Trump ad takes users to a birthday card landing page where they enter their message, contact information, and click “Sign The Card” to submit. The campaign is hoping for 2 million signatures, and I don’t know, guys, but I feel like maybe he won’t get around to actually reading them. This approach seems more gimmicky.
At least one YouTuber thought Trump’s birthday ad campaign was scammy.
Kara Karin Stearns isn’t a political professional, she’s a YouTuber who’s been posting videos for a year and has 121 subscribers. In a video titled “Do not sign Trump’s birthday card! It’s a trick!,” Stearns says she’s not a Trump supporter but she thought signing a birthday card for him would be nice and harmless until she realized it was an ad.
“They’re playing at people’s kindness to do this and it’s so incredibly insulting to me,” she says. “If you’re signing a birthday card, you leave a message and your name. Why do they need your email and your phone number? Why do they need all that information if you’re just signing a card for him? And then you can read the fine print down at the bottom and that basically sums it all up that you’re just signing on for his campaign.”
It’s important to note Trump isn’t the first candidate to use birthday cards to build a campaign list, and during the Obama administration, there were multiple instances of these sorts of birthday cards for Biden. The Biden campaign is also running its own ad for Trump’s big day, asking people to wish him a happy birthday for his last time in the White House:
A major trend in online videos is the shift away from a hyper-polished, professional look to something more “authentic.” It’s driven by the rise of YouTube and live-streaming and accelerated by the pandemic. Viewers are used to seeing people talk from their homes and they’re forgiving of things like bad lighting or less-than-perfect enunciation. Biden’s ad shows how that approach has made its way into politics.