Don’t vote zombie! Trump and Biden fight to the death for votes on social media

Both campaigns are using highly specific filters to home in on voters through social media

US President Donald Trump listens as Nigel Farage (R) speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport October 28, 2020, in Goodyear, Arizona. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski

U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up during a campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport in Goodyear, Arizona, U.S., October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Democratic U.S. presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden takes part in a virtual Get Out the Vote event with Oprah Winfrey in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

California Senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks during a drive-in campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona on October 28, 2020. / AFP / ARIANA DREHSLER

Vice President Mike Pence motions to his daughter Audrey Pence to walk on stage after he spoke during a campaign top on behalf of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, in Flint, Mich. (Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News via AP)

Jessie Dales entertains supporters as they wait in line to enter the venue where US President Donald J. Trump will speak on a campaign stop, outside the venue at Goodyear Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. EPA

Poll worker Alice Machinist, of Newton, Mass., right, wears a mask and shield out of concern for the coronavirus while assisting a voter, left, with a ballot during early in-person general election voting, at the Newton Free Library, in Newton, Massachusetts. AP Photo

Democratic U.S. presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill wave as they depart after casting their votes in the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Wilmington, Delaware, Reuters

Mark Swindell (R) and his daughters Ivy (L) and Ella try to keep warm at dawn while waiting in line to attend a campaign rally with U.S. President Donald Trump at Phoenix Goodyear Airport n Goodyear, Arizona. AFP

Tara Immen of Happy Valley, Arizona, wears decorative glasses while waiting in line to attend a campaign rally with U.S. President Donald Trump at Phoenix Goodyear Airport. AFP

-A truck adorned with decorations and a Mitch McConnell sign sits outside of the venue where U.S. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, makes a campaign stop. AFP

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell stands and speaks to the press and his supporters during a campaign stop in Smithfield, Kentucky. AFP

Julian Belilty, from the Kalorama neighbourhood of the District of Columbia, casts his early vote at the Marie Reed Elementary School in the Adams Morgan Neighborhood in Washington, U.S.. Reuters

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks outside of the state building after voting in Wilmington, Delaware,. AFP

Scott Brady stands in front of his house with a Trump campaign sign in Springfield, Pa. Once a Democrat, Brady says he switched parties to vote for Donald Trump in 2016, and plans to vote for him again in 2020. AP Photo

Supporters of President Donald Trump cheer as he walks off stage after speaking during a campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport, in Goodyear, Arizona. AP Photo

US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have relied heavily on political advertising before the election next Tuesday.

From television to social media, their campaigns have spent millions of dollars to win over voters.

Mr Biden had raised $177 million in campaign funds at the start of October, compared to Mr Trump's $63.1m, The New York Times reported.

The Trump campaign cut millions from its national budget as contributions dwindled, while Mr Biden added tens of millions to his war chest.

As the election draws near, recent advertisements released by the Trump campaign have relied on misinformation and scare tactics to sway voters.

A two-day Google advertisement by the Trump campaign erroneously claimed Mr Biden would raise taxes on 82 per cent of all Americans.

Mr Biden has said tax increases would only affect those who earn $400,000 or more a year.

The Trump campaign also promoted an unusual attack advertisement on YouTube this week that compared Mr Biden to a zombie.

The video, How to Prevent a Zombie Uprising, featured images of Mr Biden.

“Look for someone who has a corpse-like appearance, exhibits aggressive behaviour, craves human flesh and utters incoherent moans and groans,” its narrator says.

It has been viewed more than 6.9 million times.

Mr Trump spent about $90m on Facebook advertisements since July 1, $18.8m more than Mr Biden, research from the New York University Ad Observatory found.

The group interviewed 6,500 respondents during a survey to track political spending on the social media site. It found that 27 per cent of Mr Trump’s advertisements on Facebook since July 1 were used to attack the media.

The study also found that the Trump and Biden campaigns applied highly specific filters to reach out to Facebook users.

The filters provided an insight into the types of voters the campaigns hoped to win over as both focused heavily on swing states and minorities.

The Trump campaign went for the African-American vote by using filters to reach voters interested in "hip hop music, African-American music, African-American culture and/or Vibe [magazine]".

It also reached out to fans of sports clubs in swing states, including the Green Bay Packers American football team in Wisconsin and Detroit Red Wings ice hockey team in Michigan.

The Biden campaign sought to win over the LGBTQ community by homing in on Facebook users interested in "LGBT community, Out [magazine], Pride and/or RuPaul's Drag Race".

Mr Biden also zeroed in on National Public Radio listeners, Oprah fans and Facebook users interested in Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Avengers film series and Star Trek.

The Biden campaign received a significant cash boost from billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who announced this week that he would finance an advertising blitz for the Democratic presidential nominee in the final week of the campaign.

Mr Bloomberg, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidential nomination, will spend $15m on advertising in Texas and Ohio.

The money will pay for state-wide advertisements in English and Spanish. The move bolsters the Biden campaign as it focuses on traditionally Republican states.

The former vice president has focused on red states to appeal to voters, often suburban, whose opinion of Mr Trump has changed owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

He has also trained his sights on young voters and people of colour in his quest to turn red states blue. While Texas is home to a large Republican population, polling has shown that Ohio remains evenly split.

Until now, Mr Bloomberg had focused on boosting the Democratic ticket in Florida after he pledged $100m to support Mr Biden in the southern swing state.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg news agency reported that Mr Trump had withdrawn most of the advertising funds for Florida to focus on four battleground states: Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Trump campaign denied the report, saying it was spending more than a million on TV advertising in Florida.

However, his campaign suffered a blow as fundraising slowed and the economic gains he hoped to tout were undone by the coronavirus pandemic.