proposed laws

PA Bill Number: HB777

Title: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Description: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (104-97)

Last Action Date: Mar 27, 2024

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Bloomberg Now Paying Social Media Influencers For Support :: 02/07/2020

Michael Bloomberg has already spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in his quest to become president, but he’s dropping a few more Bloomberg Bucks on social media influencers who are willing to shill for the anti-gun billionaire in exchange for cold, hard cash.

According to The Daily Beast, Bloomberg’s election team has started a new campaign aimed at getting “micro-influencers” to show their (paid) support for the former New York mayor.

For a fixed $150 fee, the Bloomberg campaign is pitching micro-influencers—someone who has from 1,000 to 100,000 followers, in industry parlance—to create original content “that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.”

“Are you sick of the chaos & infighting overshadowing the issues that matter most to us? Please express your thoughts verbally or for still image posts please overlay text about why you support Mike,” the campaign copy tells would-be Bloomberg stans under the heading “Content We’d Love From You,” asking influencers to “Show+Tell why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better, state why YOU think he’s a great candidate.”

Honestly, I’m a little surprised that Bloomberg’s only shelling out $150 for the paid endorsements. It’s not like he has to be stingy with his cash, after all. It looks like Bloomberg’s targeting those influencers with smaller followers, which may be an attempt to help the campaign appear more organic, by using individuals who aren’t well known to most folks.

The Bloomberg content campaign appears geared toward collecting content that can later be shared by the campaign, essentially creating a stock-image library of well-crafted, “organic”-seeming still images and videos custom-made for the campaign. The relatively low $150 cost per post also makes the investment comparatively cheap—some influencers can command fees in the five or even six figures for a brand campaign, and that’s not even including celebrity accounts, who can earn enough money per post to make even billionaire Bloomberg blush.

According to The Daily Beast, Bloomberg’s campaign may be the first to use the resources of Tribe to try and build the illusion of grassroots support, but now that the cat’s out of the bag, don’t be surprised if Joe Biden’s campaign starts offering $20 or so for those willing to stump for him online.

Meanwhile, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, Bloomberg’s campaign is now averaging double digit support for the first time since the gun control sugar daddy launched his presidential bid last November, though he’s still showing less than half the level of support seen by Biden and Sanders. Who knows, maybe Bloomberg’s next move will be to start giving people $150 if they tell pollsters that they plan on voting for him.

Cam Edwards has covered the 2nd Amendment for more than 15 years as a broadcast and online journalist, as well as the co-author of "Heavy Lifting: Grow Up, Get a Job, Start a Family, and Other Manly Advice" with Jim Geraghty. He lives outside of Farmville, Virginia with his family. https://bearingarms.com/author/camedwards/

https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2020/02/07/bloomberg-paying-for-support/