Company pays ‘influencers’ to persuade followers to tune-out Trump’s Super Bowl Ads

https://twitter.com/i/status/1222928224973414401
Screen capture … from a Trump 2020 campaign ad to run during the Super Bowl … Credit: GOP

Leftists with large social media followings are being paid by a liberal tech startup to persuade others to tune-out the Trump campaign’s two Super Bowl ads today.

The #MuteTrump crusade organized by a New York intelligence outfit called Main Street One is just the latest progressive cause being championed by the firm that high-mindedly aims to “fix internet discourse” according to its website’s tagline.

“Main Street One repairs harmful narratives and advances positive ones on behalf of causes, campaigns, and companies,” the site proclaims. “Our intelligence system tracks opportunities to shift public discourse and then outputs messages and content to change the outcome.”

According to Gateway Pundit, the firm notified its mailing-list followers on Friday that it was “paying ‘influencers’ to direct their friends to turn off their televisions when the president’s ad airs using the hashtag #MuteTrump.”

The text sent out by Main Street One’s Digital Relational Organizer Stone Van Camp, offered a link to apply for receiving compensation to participate in the digital anti-Trump campaign.

“We’re building a movement to #MuteTrump!” Main Street One’s Digital Relational Organizer Stone Van Camp wrote. “Trump has reserved a commercial spot during the Super Bowl and we want to get as many people as we can to tune him out! If you’re tired of the lies, the tweets, and the hateful rhetoric he uses to divide our country, join us.”

“We’re recruiting Instagram users like you to post #MuteTrump and tell your friends why you’re turning off his ad when it airs,” Camp’s message stated. “This is a paid influencer opportunity, so don’t miss out on the chance to #MuteTrump and get compensated for your support. If you are interested in working with us, I have attached the link to our application below. There, you’ll be able to review all relevant details, name your price, and submit your application. We hope you’ll join our movement and look forward to hearing back from you.”

It’s not clear who is footing the bill to compensate influencers who are being mobilized by the tech company, or how effective the effort will be, but the company is the real deal and has the chops to deliver results, according to the available information.

A recent Vanity Fair feature on Main Street One pointed out that the company’s founder, Curtis Hougland had for some time received funding from DARPA for combating hate speech and online extremism in the fight against ISIS using sophisticated emerging technologies.

The company’s own website also touts experience working with Facebook, Google, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and other major organizations and “progressive political causes and campaigns.”

An Intelligencer story on Hougland and his 13-person company highlighted a campaign they ran in November 2019 in which they paid influencers who were not normally involved in politics to “do cheerful propaganda for political clients,” specifically the Kentucky Democratic Party in their successful effort to defeat incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin.

In that article, the author wrote that Hougland “has a resistance crusader’s faith that the forces standing in the way of Democratic victory are partisan fake news and foreign disinformation. ‘We’re not going to make up information,’ he tells me. ‘We’re not going to use bots.’ Just the opposite, he argues. What could be more real than a first-person testimonial? (So what if it’s pay-for-play?)”

Main Street One was founded in 2016 to respond to the success conservatives were demonstrating in being able to take apart liberal narratives using what Vanity Fair called “junk news, misleading statistics, and links designed to inflame voter sentiment around hot-button cultural issues like race, immigration, and identity.”

“One side had weaponized the internet, and one side hadn’t,” Hougland told Vanity Fair. “Democrats want to focus on facts and figures. The other side plays into fears and taps into emotions, and they show it to you. It’s all about emotional resonance.”

The big game today will include many big-budget ads and they traditionally attract the rapt attention of viewers. The two 30-second Trump ads will cost the campaign $5 million each.

Have a sneak peek…

The crowd-funded “We Build the Wall, Inc.” non-profit told the Gateway Pundit that “its donors are getting inundated with notifications and emails to #MuteTrump.” The news site wrote …

Main Street One’s social media campaign is “pathetic,” a WBW donor told the Gateway Pundit on Saturday.

“The left has failed at just about everything – trying to frame Trump with Russia collusion, impeachment, and even money-hungry strippers. Now it’s a silly hashtag to mute Trump,” the donor, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “It has only made the president stronger. Meanwhile, just look at the overflowing, massive attendance at his rallies compared to the empty seat – less than 50 people – attending warren Biden or Bloomberg campaign stops.

“Triggered Democrats continually show how pathetic they can be,” she continued. “They seem to forget they are the ones on the wrong side of history and Americans overwhelmingly voted to elect President Trump. This is just another failed attempt to silence someone they fear, it’s what they do across America to anyone who exposes their hypocrisy.”

 

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Victor Rantala

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles