Stop trying to make ‘woke’ happen
Conservatives are using “wokeness” in thousands of digital ads and emails, but it’s unclear if people even know what they’re talking about.
In the press, in their social media posts, and on the campaign trail, Republican politicians and conservative groups are repeating one word over and over again in an attempt to own the libs: “woke.” Over the past several years, the word has made its way into thousands of digital ads, political fundraising emails, and stump speeches – but there’s little evidence to suggest it's resonating with just about anyone.
In this week’s FWIW, we’ll try to quantify the Republican frenzy over the woke wars.
But first…
By the numbers
FWIW, political advertisers spent $6.4 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Conservative media enterprise The Daily Wire continued to spend heavily on Facebook and Instagram last week, with most ad dollars going to Jeremy Boreing’s anti-woke chocolate bar scheme. Last week, they claimed to have sold 500,000 units.
The American Action Network, a group affiliated with House Republicans, is running a large-scale campaign on Facebook attacking Democrats on cuts to Medicare Advantage. They’re targeting over a dozen frontline House Dems with videos and graphics like these:
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $580,000 on Google ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
A whopping 23% of all political ad spending on Google last week was in Wisconsin, where liberal Janet Protasiewicz is running against conservative Daniel Kelly in the state’s Supreme Court election on April 4th. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler shared a good thread outlining the stakes of that race.
If you follow FWIW on Twitter, you would have already seen that there’s a group called “Move Oregon’s Border” that is running YouTube ads advocating for Idaho to take over Eastern Oregon. Yes, apparently, this is a real thing.
…and here’s a snapshot of political ad spending on Snapchat, year-to-date:
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From around the internet
Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) once again generated tons of social media praise for expertly and simply breaking down the SVB crisis on Instagram and TikTok, which hit 15 million views in under 24 hours.
Change.org has been allowing right-wing activists to use their platform and mobilize against the LGBT community.
Will AI replace political email fundraising templates? Well, it’s already happening.
The Wall Street Journal is spending tens of thousands of dollars on Facebook ads attacking electric vehicles.
The federal government is inching closer to banning TikTok outright unless the app’s Chinese parent company agrees to a sale. Last week, the heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and ODNI told a Senate committee that the app still posed major national security concerns.
2024 dispatch
FWIW, here’s how much money likely or confirmed 2024 presidential candidates have spent on Facebook + Google ads to date (3/5 -3/11):
On the digital campaign trail in the last week:
Former staffers detail how Ron DeSantis really enjoys eating pudding in public with his bare fingers, the Daily Beast reports.
Nikki Haley is running ads from former U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc’s Facebook page. Using different brands to advertise is a smart tactic that is not often deployed by Republican campaigns.
This machine placates fascists: Haley’s campaign is selling some pretty metal merch.
Glenn Youngkin launched new national Facebook ads focused on parents’ rights, fentanyl, and China.
Stop trying to make ‘woke’ happen
In the press, in their social media posts, and on the campaign trail, Republican politicians and conservative groups are repeating one word over and over again in an attempt to own the libs: “woke.” Over the past several years, the word has made its way into thousands of digital ads, political fundraising emails, and stump speeches – but there’s little evidence to suggest it's resonating with just about anyone.
First of all, if you’re unfamiliar, the word “woke” has its roots in civil rights activism during the early 20th century. But today, to conservative groups and politicians, “woke” has become a catch-all term used to describe someone having out-of-touch liberal values, particularly on issues related to race and gender.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been over 2,200 Facebook ads mentioning “woke” or “wokeness.” To put that in perspective, there have only been 1,500 ads mentioning “Social Security” during the same time period. That’s how indescribably stupid our politics has become.
The term is particularly popular among aspiring presidential candidates - Mike Pompeo, Glenn Youngkin, and Ron DeSantis have all used “woke” in at least one of their Facebook ads recently. The DeSantis team, in particular, has taken a shine to “wokeness”: they have used the term in 180 different ads over the past year.
Likewise, attacks on being “woke” and “wokeness” feature prominently in Republican email communications. Trump, Haley, Pompeo, Scott, and DeSantis have blasted out dozens of emails in recent weeks using the term in an attempt to rile up their base and raise cash for their campaigns or PACs. Nikki Haley’s campaign is even hawking anti-woke t-shirts that read “strong & proud, not weak & woke.”.
Maybe this stuff resonates with Very Online™ Republican grassroots donors, but it’s hard to believe that most GOP voters over 65 in Iowa or New Hampshire are in the loop on this whole thing. Even conservative activists can’t really describe it:
One thing’s for certain - the rest of America doesn't really care. A recent poll from USA Today found that 1 in 4 respondents didn’t know what the term meant, and those that did generally have favorable views of “wokeness.” Only a modest majority of Republicans thought the term meant being “overly politically correct.”
Of course, the near-constant use of the term by prominent politicians and right-wing media has piqued some Americans’ curiosity. Google Search interest for people trying to figure out what it means is at an all-time high:
In the end, it’s unlikely the semantics of “wokeness” will have a significant impact on our politics. Republicans have been railing against political correctness for decades, and this is just another way for them to do just that. However, the current explosion of the term’s usage really underscores the Right’s focus on race, gender, and culture war issues ahead of next year’s election – and it exposes their teams for being disconnected from the actual concerns of most Americans.
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