A Conservative Super PAC Created A YouTube Vlogger To Swing Congressional Races

Today, on Election Day, the months-long slog that pitted Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump will finally come to an end. The end of election season also means the end of politically-charged ads, but right before the wire, a Conservative Super PAC launched an unusual campaign. As shared by Adweek, the Congressional Leadership Fund devised a web series called Real Talk With Ruth to reach voters in eight contested Congressional districts.

Real Talk With Ruth, in a clear attempt to appeal to young voters, is styled to look like a vlog. “Ruth” is an upbeat young woman, and her videos are set in a hip-looking coffee shop with exposed brick walls. The content of Real Talk With Ruth, however, is quite different from a typical vlog. In each short clip (they’re all under a minute long, making them ideal for distribution as pre-roll advertisements), Ruth goes after a liberal Congressional candidate with a sweet tone that belies her pointed attacks. Here she is taking on Zephyr Teachout, a much-buzzed-about progressive aiming for a New York Congressional seat.

Ruth is also fluent en español, and she uses her Spanish-speaking skills to target some Hispanic voters as well.

A Conservative vlogger may seem like an odd choice on YouTube, where the creative community is mostly liberal and the general tone tends toward positivity. Still, the Congressional Leadership Fund believes it has found a cost-effective way to launch political attack ads. Adweek’s report notes that Real Talk With Ruth spots get 30% more watch time than TV ads re-purposed for digital distribution.

“Rather than having a very political-looking political ad that’s very easy to swipe past because people are just inundated with so many ads, we wanted something that showed up in someone’s feed that looks like the other things in their feed,” CLF president Mike Shields told Adweek. “[We wanted it to] look like something that would make people stop and say, ‘Hey wait a minute. Who is this? Why are they talking about me and what are they talking about?'”

Real Talk With Ruth ads will run through Election Day. If they help swing Congressional races, we may be in for more vlog-style attack ads in the future.