Ads

My wife and I were watching Hulu this week, and we kept getting commercials about a special election in the Ohio 12th District. We do live in central Ohio, but not in the 12th District. The algorithms choosing the ads are close, but off by a few miles. We cannot vote in that election. I wonder if the campaign would care, if we told them.

We only got ads for one candidate. I don't know much about the race. There doesn't seem to be much reason to learn about it, since it's not my district. I don't know what the polls say, but candidates from the same party have won in that district since 1980. Maybe the candidates know that, and only one bothers to run ads, or ads on Hulu.

Since it is a candidate from the party that never wins there that is running the ads, maybe this candidate thinks he can break the trend, if only he spends enough on advertising. Maybe the other candidate is so confident he can win, he isn't bothering to run ads. Or maybe the algorithm has pegged us as likely voters for a specific party, even if they can't find the boundaries.

There are a lot of variables to consider in all this. But for me, it's just a curiosity. Who is deciding who gets what ads? On what basis? I would think district would be as important as party affiliation, though I suppose someone from one district could volunteer for or donate to a campaign from a nearby district. But my party affiliation has changed over the years, more than once. My wife's hasn't. She is more decided in her politics than I am. And the Hulu account is in her name. So, maybe the algorithms only know who is registered for the account, and don't know who is watching. Maybe I can take some comfort in that. And maybe we humans can use that against them, if they ever get powerful enough to scare us. We could register falsely, and trade with neighbors, or even enemies, just to keep the algorithms guessing.

I'm going to remember that idea for the future. For now, I'll just ignore the political ads like I ignore the rest.