Seaport Research analyst David Joyce downgraded Fox Corp to Neutral, citing the company’s exposure to the cyclical nature of political advertising. While Fox Corp benefits from strong cash flow during election years, Joyce believes the stock’s current valuation already reflects this potential, prompting the downgrade.
Elon Musk’s America PAC has launched a digital advertising campaign targeting swing-state voters with controversial messages in support of Donald Trump’s presidential bid. The campaign utilizes platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and X, with ads portraying Trump as a strong leader while painting his opponent, Kamala Harris, in a negative light. The campaign’s strategy involves emphasizing economic concerns and fear-mongering tactics, highlighting Musk’s shift towards right-wing politics and his significant influence on the election.
Third-party advertisers are emerging as a formidable force in global democracies, shaping narratives and influencing public opinion. A recent study by Lokniti-CSDS sheds light on the extent and impact of online political advertising by third parties in India, revealing a significant presence of 27 advertisers on Meta and 24 on Google among the top 50 spenders. A striking finding of the study is the abundance of Islamophobic content, misinformation, and derogatory remarks in third-party political ads on Meta. Despite provisions in the law aimed at ensuring fairness and accountability in political advertising, the current regulatory framework falls short, allowing third parties to operate with impunity, free from scrutiny over the content they disseminate and the source of their financial backing.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become the first political party in India to surpass the Rs 100 crore mark in political advertising on Google and YouTube since May 2018. The party has allocated over Rs 101 crore towards promoting its digital campaigns, equivalent to the combined expenditure of Congress, DMK, and IPAC. BJP’s ads accounted for approximately 26% of the total Rs 390 crore spent on political advertising on Google platforms, with over 161,000 content pieces published. Notably, Google’s definition of political ads encompasses ads from news organizations, government publicity departments, and even commercials featuring actor-politicians. Congress and DMK follow BJP in political spending on Google, allocating Rs 45 crore and Rs 42 crore, respectively. The majority of BJP’s ads targeted Karnataka, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, while Tamil Nadu emerged as the top target for political ads overall.
