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I think the advertising algorithms on Twitter can tell I'm a candidate for office now; I'm getting ads for places that'd only make sense for people to get who are passing legislation about them
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People talk about corruption as if it's this really obvious, direct politician-to-lobbyist connection, but a lot of the times it's more subtle and insidious than that. A lot of the time it's just disguised to look like normal advertising.
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I remember noticing this when I was in school in DC, too, and I'd pass billboards on the Metro for things like aerospace companies advertising their latest fighter jet. Like, who's going to be buying that, the kids lining up for dinners at the schools I'd work in?
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No, it's directed at the government workers who make contracting decisions. But you wouldn't necessarily notice that unless you step back and think about the target audience for each and every ad you see. And I mean, who has time for that?
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This is how you get stuff like Lockheed Martin writing the CRM that some congressional staff use for constituent contact, even though they're in the aerospace business: they're good at doing advertisements that just the right people notice, and everyone else ignores.