Michael Bloomberg, who’s willing to spend $2 billion to beat President Donald Trump and spent more than $350 million plastering airwaves with his ads, is now paying people to plaster your Instagram accounts with terrible memes.
The New York Times reported Feb. 13 that the liberal billionaire presidential candidate “has contracted some of the biggest meme-makers on the internet to post sponsored content on Instagram promoting his presidential campaign.” [Emphasis added]. The campaign is collaborating with Meme 2020, “a new company formed by some of the people behind extremely influential [Instagram] accounts.”
Accounts involved in this campaign posted “Bloomberg campaign ads in the form of fake direct messages from the candidate.” [Emphasis added.] Maybe original messages from Bloomberg weren’t that meme-worthy. Spearheading the Meme 2020 project is head of Jerry Media Mike Purzycki. The Times noted that Jerry Media is “a media and marketing company that is a powerful force in the influencer economy. The company’s portfolio includes some of the most notable meme accounts on Instagram.” [Emphasis added.]
One of those accounts was so bad that The Times failed to mention it by name.
That controversial Jerry Media account, actually called “@fuckjerry,” posted a really awkward Bloomberg ad for its audience of 14.9 million followers. The account captioned the photo: “He does look pretty cool (and yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg).”
Another ad, posted by @GrapeJuiceBoys, has Bloomberg actually requesting the account to create an original meme to make Bloomberg “look cool.” That account has 2.7 million followers.
The Times provided further context on the meme campaign:
“The campaign, which launched this week, has already placed sponsored posts on Instagram accounts including @GrapeJuiceBoys, a meme page with more than 2.7 million followers; Jerry Media’s own most popular account, with more than 13.3 million followers; and @Tank.Sinatra, a member with more than 2.3 million followers.”
One user (@rebelwithoutapause_), cited by The Times, did not take kindly to Bloomberg’s meme strategy:
“‘This is a clear example of what wealth can get you votes. Bloomberg’s a billionaire and is able to pull in endorsements like this.’”
Bloomberg seems to want to get his face on as many platforms as possible. MSNBC Senior Producer Kyle Griffin tweeted Feb. 12 that “Mike Bloomberg is spending so much money on Facebook ads that he has surpassed Trump.” [Emphasis added]. Bloomberg apparently has spent more than a ridiculous $1 million a day on average over the last two weeks on Facebook ads alone.
This is the latest in a series of instances where Bloomberg has been soliciting the help of Big Tech and social media influencers to help boost his campaign.
