People surfing the Web in certain areas of DC or New York may be hit with a rather alarming political ad campaign while flicking through their daily news feeds.
The digital campaign launched by the Bridge Project political donor group, which is allied to Hilary Clinton, is geo-targeting ads nearby places owned or sponsored by the oil tycoon Koch brothers.
With its $4 million war chest to support Hilary Clinton, the Bridge Project is focusing on undermining two of the biggest funders of Republicans.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
Places it’s targeting include 740 Park Avenue, where the pair live, Koch Plaza at the Met, the Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, and the Koch Dinosaur Wing at the American Museum of Natural History.
Although the brothers deny the claim made in a new book about their family, which was written about by The New York Times on Monday and is now repeated in the ad, they admit their father signed the deal for the German oil refinery in 1933.
Hitler took his role as chancellor of Germany in January 1933, which means the deal was signed while he was in office, although of course Koch Snr is unlikely to have known exactly what was coming.
The budget for this campaign is understood to be a measly $10,000, which is not a sum that will win you the White House.
The targeting of the ads also reveals how well-linked the oil industry is to the arts, a relationship that campaign groups like the Art Not Oil coalition have been seeking to break up.
It’s not clear how much voters will care about how the father of a big funder of the Republican Party made his living, but the US election race is clearly getting dirty, and going digital.
➤ New Bridge Project ads target David Koch’s apartment building [American Bridge]
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.