An advert attacking Maine Senate candidate Troy Jackson was mistakenly shown in Portland, Oregon, after a political action committee backing Susan Collins targeted the wrong market.
Defending Main Street spent almost $25,000 on digital placements for a 30-second advert, titled “So Many Taxes”, which appeared across hundreds of postcodes in Oregon and Washington between October 8 and October 11.
The error emerged after an Oregon user reported seeing five anti-Jackson adverts in a single day. “I choose to believe they mixed up Portlands,” the user wrote.
The advert was intended for Portland, Maine, where it also ran on broadcast television and generated about 675,000 impressions over the same four-day period.
Defending Main Street said its media vendor had mistakenly placed the digital campaign in the Oregon market. The targeting was corrected by Monday afternoon, and the organisation said the vendor, Cross Screen Media, refunded the money.
Sarah Chamberlain, president and chief executive of the affiliated Republican Main Street Partnership, said she was furious with the ad buyer.
“I would never run an ad in Portland, Oregon, for Susan Collins,” she told NBC News.
Jackson’s campaign seized on the mistake, with spokesman Dan Gottlieb saying: “Susan Collins’ allies are so out of touch with Maine, they can’t even find it on a map. Good luck convincing Mainers you know what’s best for them when you don’t know which Portland they live in.”
Political advertising error highlights targeting risks
The incident comes during an expensive Senate contest in which political advertising is projected to reach $384 million, nearly twice the amount spent when Collins last ran in 2020.
From July 26 to mid-September, Republican groups spent $82.1 million on television advertising in the race, compared with $55.5 million by Democrats. Super PACs pay full television rates, while candidates’ campaigns receive discounted prices.
Location targeting, the system used to direct the Defending Main Street advert, can result in adverts being delivered outside the area selected by an advertiser. A 2019 analysis of 500 million location-targeted adverts found that 29% were shown beyond the intended area.
The wider digital advertising industry estimates that billions of dollars are lost each year through issues including misplaced adverts, unseen content, fraudulent traffic and low-quality websites.
Neither Defending Main Street nor the Collins campaign responded to requests for comment.
