This is part of an ongoing series where I review some of the ads purchased by the Russians. In doing so I hope we can get a better understanding of what they were trying to do, and how to recognize it the next time we’re faced with propaganda.
If you want to follow along, the ads can all be downloaded here. All of today’s ads can be found in the 2016-q1/2016-01 folder.
The “Stop All Invaders” anti-immigration posts were back with a vengeance. They had 19 ads, a third of what the William and Kalvin group had, but still the second most. A lot of the ads were repetitive, with one or two lines and a simple image, such as p(1)0003155:
Ad p(1)0003209 used the same image, but with a different caption:
Almost all the ads were vehemently against all immigrants. But then there was ad p(1)0003241. It linked to and copied a lot of text from this Guardian article from 2015, defending Syrian refugees as mostly harmless and in need of our sympathies and support:
I don’t know if they purposefully sent mixed messages to help keep confusion building, or if the ad writer was having a rough day and did a rush job to fill his quota. Once I get to the February folder, it might become more clear.
THIS IS AN OPEN THREAD. Have a wonderful Sunday.