Breaking: Yes, There Are a Fair Number of Trump Supporters in the Ad Industry

By Patrick Coffee 

Regular readers of this blog, our parent publication and pretty much any other outlet covering the advertising industry could be forgiven for thinking that it doubles as a left-of-center political advocacy group.

No, really: How many agencies have either directly or indirectly run some kind of anti-Trump ad or stunt over the past year-plus? A whole hell of a lot of them. 180LA and Saatchi & Saatchi referenced The Donald in ads for 360fly and Tecate, respectively, while everyone from GS&P to a group of young, anonymous creatives has registered their disapproval of the Republican nominee via some kind of pro-bono effort.

But is the advertising industry really so overwhelmingly anti-Donald? The Trump/Pence campaign’s digital mastermind is a coder and web designer who previously ran a marketing agency in San Antonio.

Advertisement

Comments on this site obviously do not represent the industry at large, but several of our readers and tipsters have either tacitly or explicitly stated in recent months that they will be voting for Trump. One contact told us that he/she feels marginalized as a conservative Republican who supports Trump for the very reason so many others characterize him as a raging dumpster fire: he’s not a professional politician and makes no real effort to fulfill the requirements of that role.

Another source thinks that some of the anti-Trump projects might have the opposite effect in furthering the resolve of those within the business who had either planned to vote for him or debated doing so.

So yes, it’s fairly clear that Trump voters remain a minority within advertising. According to tipsters, one creative leader at a major agency recently took to Facebook to write that colleagues who plan to vote for him should not make this information public lest they inspire “profound disappointment” in their supervisor.

But most of the people who post pro-Trump sentiments on our site aren’t coming from The Drudge Report. They work in advertising, and they either think he is the superior candidate or really enjoy trolling people who disagree.

This is our way of encouraging you to send more tips on this topic. We are genuinely curious.

Advertisement