Benedict Pringle

Meta & Google announced they're banning political ads in the EU.

What were the EU trying to achieve with the legislation? Why did the platforms decide they'd rather stop taking ads than comply?

I speak to @worklesshard.bsky.social from @whotargets.me about all this & more in the latest episode

'Labour’s personal attacks on Farage will backfire' - LabourList Benedict Pringle argues Labour should take a leaf out of the Tories' book when it comes to Reform.

Labour’s attacks on Farage’s character are a mistake and there’s a better strategy for beating Reform UK - my article in @labourlist.bsky.social labourlist.org/2025/08/fara...

The Future of Digital Campaigns with Sam Jeffers In this week’s episode of The Political Marketing Podcast, I sit down with a true trailblazer in the field of political advertising, Sam Jeffers. Sam is the founder of Who Targets Me, a trans…

Meta and Google are pulling political ads in the EU. But what does that mean for democracy?

I spoke with Sam Jeffers from @whotargets.me to break down the seismic shift in digital campaigning.

politicaladvertising.co.uk/2025/08/14/t...

How (and why) to fix political ads in the EU Meta follows Google (and TikTok and Microsoft) and leaves the EU political advertising market. The damage will be significant.

“An internet without political ads, where algorithms are the primary deciders of what voters do and don’t see, where there’s little transparency, & where the good guys who follow rules are punished while the bad guys who don’t, is worse than an internet with them.” open.substack.com/pub/whotarge...

The essential dilemma for Labour over the course of this Parliament is whether their attempt to stem the flow of votes to Reform will prevent them from gaining tactical votes from LibDem & Green-minded voters

Polling & Political Strategy: An Inside Look At What Parties Really Know About Voters In the most recent episode of The Political Marketing Podcast I had the privilege of sitting down with Damian Lyons Lowe, CEO of Survation, one of the UK’s most influential market research firms.&n…

Could Labour’s hope for the future be gaining tactical votes from Green & LibDem supporters? 👀

Polling guru @damiansurvation.bsky.social breaks down this strategic dilemma in the latest episode of The Political Marketing Podcast.

politicaladvertising.co.uk/2025/07/19/p...

🧵 The government published a significant policy paper today "Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections".

It includes some welcome proposals - including one that we've been campaigning for - but it doesn't go far enough.

cc @rushanaraalibgs.bsky.social

Sir Chris Powell on Labour’s Shadow Communications Agency, Populism, and the Art of Persuasion In the second episode of The Political Marketing Podcast, I spoke to Sir Chris Powell, one of the most influential figures in British advertising and political communication. Chris helped advise th…

Sir Chris Powell on Labour’s Shadow Communications Agency, Populism, and the Art of Persuasion politicaladvertising.co.uk/2025/07/12/s...

One year on: what the 2024 election campaigns say about today's political landscape The political parties' ad strategies deployed during last year's election were surprising and have implications for the current and future political landscape.

Article by me >> One year on: what the 2024 election campaigns say about today's political landscape www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/one-...

So strange she’s barely singing. But great show so far

On Brexit anniversary week a spam email with an update on how Alexander Nix (ex Cambridge Analytica) is putting joy into the world lands in our inbox.

There are still no content rules for election ads …we are campaigning to change that. reformpoliticaladvertising.org

@carolecadwalla.bsky.social

France accuses Russia over AI video of Brigitte Macron sex-abuse claims — The Times and The Sunday Times France has accused Russian agents of targeting Brigitte Macron, the president’s wife who was a teacher, with a video generated by artificial intelligence that appears to show a former pupil accusing h...

Terrifying. Very little out there to stop this happening in UK.

“Dougan boasted that he used AI to generate nearly 90,000 articles a month, working from home. He claimed that his material had been viewed by some 40 million people in western countries.”

apple.news/AbvNRgsvcQva...

Near miss for Labour in North Tyneside should be a wake up call - Reform Political Advertising As the dust settles from this week’s local and mayoral elections, one thing seems clear: the UK’s political landscape shifted. Labour and the Conservatives lost their grip as voters fragmented towards...

Did a deeply misleading campaign from the Tories nearly cost Labour the North Tyneside Mayoral contest?

This is the wakeup call Labour needed.

Election ad regulation must be delivered before the next general election.

reformpoliticaladvertising.org/near-miss-fo...

Appalling behaviour from North Tyneside Conservative Party. Deeply cynical. Bordering on illegal.

🧵We've just published our review of the 2025 local council and mayoral elections.

They mark the first significant electoral test for the new government and an early opportunity for all political parties to show whether they have learned the lessons voters have been demanding.

Help us keep up our momentum...

Around 20% of all the mayoral candidates standing across the UK have signed our ad code that commits to "make every effort not to mislead voters".

Please take 1 minute to ask your local candidate to join them.

👇
reformpoliticaladvertising.org/take-action/...

We are delighted in the leadership being shown by Ros Jones, Mayor of Doncaster who has signed up to our advertising code for the Doncaster mayoral election on 1st May. 👏👏

You can read the full code here.

reformpoliticaladvertising.org/a-simple-ad-...

A penny for your vote: Spending limits on third-party political advertising violate the Charter In a 5-4 decision in Ontario (Attorney General) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada), the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Ontario's spending…

Love this.

Supreme Court in Canada rule election advertising should not be surpressed unduly.

Reason: it’s a contributing factor to a citizen’s right to vote in an informed way www.lexology.com/library/deta...

Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 18/03/2025 · 1h 18m

Theres some brilliant analysis of data from the 2024 US Presidential election along with insight into broader electoral trends in this episode podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Wait, what?

Very good

How the Harris campaign chose its fonts Plus: These are the most common font pairings in design

How the Harris campaign chose its fonts open.substack.com/pub/yello/p/... by @hunterschwarz.bsky.social

My day wearing Meta smart glasses, secretly filming everyone — The Times and The Sunday Times There’s a creepy guy on the 9.12am to London Bridge and that creepy guy is me. I’m moving around the carriage filming people up close: there’s a middle-aged man watching pop videos; there’s a woman ap...

apple.news/AB1VhprsRSme...

On Meta 😎:

“If I don’t realise I’m being filmed, how can I give consent?

There are 3 layers to this.

1st, just filming someone without consent is an issue. 2nd, we don’t know what happens when that data is sent to Meta and 3rd, we don’t know how that data is then shared with third parties.”

I love this from @channel4news.bsky.social! 👏

Finally got around to reading Lis Smith’s excellent book ‘Any Given Tuesday’.

I was delighted to be reminded of (and learn additional context to) Michael J. Fox’s ad supporting Claire McCaskill.

youtu.be/NrwOFWloXso?...

🧵After all the talk about the urgent need to restore trust in politics 2025 needs to be the year that action is taken.

2024 is the year we’ve proved how practical implementing the HoL recommendation for the regulation of election ads is.

Below are some "highlights".

I’m trialing switching from Twitter to BlueSky. What about you?

Brand building must adapt to the age of creative fragmentation Brands today have to balance competing needs: more digital content to drive engagement, but also more consistency to drive long-term effectiveness.

This is what I spend most of my weeks at work thinking about. Via @tomroach.bsky.social www.marketingweek.com/brand-buildi...

Trump declares Elon Musk is ‘not going to be president’ amid ongoing taunts ‘No, he’s not taking the presidency,’ Donald Trump exclaimed Sunday night. ‘That’s not happening.’

I think we can see things starting to fray already www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...