Pro-Collins Super PAC Mistakenly Runs Maine Senate Ad in Oregon
publishers 20articles 20first reported 12 Oct, 17:05 UTCdeveloping since 12 Oct · 8 editions
A Republican super PAC supporting Maine Sen. Susan Collins mistakenly spent about $25,000 to place digital ads targeting her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, in the Portland, Oregon, media market instead of Portland, Maine.
A spokesperson for Defending Main Street said its media vendor made the error during a recent independent expenditure. According to Google’s Ads Transparency Center data cited by Fortune, the 30-second ad appeared in hundreds of ZIP codes across Oregon and Washington from Oct. 8 through Oct. 11. The ad criticized Jackson over taxes and the cost of living.
The misplaced campaign became public after an Oregon social media user reported repeatedly seeing the anti-Jackson advertisement. Newsweek reported that the targeting had been corrected by Monday afternoon.
Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership, told NBC News that she was furious with ad buyer Cross Screen Media and said the company refunded the money. She said she would not intentionally run an Oregon advertisement supporting Collins.
Jackson campaign spokesperson Dan Gottlieb criticized Collins’s allies over the mistake, saying they “can’t even find [Maine] on a map.” Separately, the same ad ran on broadcast television in the intended Portland, Maine, market and generated about 675,000 impressions over the same four-day period, according to AdImpact data cited by MS NOW and Fortune.
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Written from 8 articles, 1 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 18 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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