Aoife Barry (Freelance journalist, writer & broadcaster) reviews the media dynamics of GE24 for EDMO Ireland and FuJo.

While ‘attack ads’ have been a feature of American life since the 1960s (we can thank some of the era’s pioneering ad men for that), they’re not a prominent part of Irish politics. Yet this week saw the first attack ad of General Election 2024, aimed by Fine Gael squarely at Sinn Féin.

The ad, which featured dramatic music over footage of a pink piggy bank being smashed, claimed in a voiceover that “Sinn Féin would raid our public finances”.

The voiceover went on to claim that Fine Gael has built up a €16 billion fund (in the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund) and that Sinn Féin would “smash and grab all of it in a heist on the public finances”. The ad further claimed that Sinn Féin cannot be trusted and would “destroy the economy and put our future at risk”.

The press release for the ad was timed, for maximum effect, to coincide with Sinn Féin’s official launch of its election manifesto. In the release, Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Paschal Donohoe called on Sinn Féin to commit to retaining the fund, and for the party’s Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty to debate with him on his party’s plans to provide for the Irish people.

As attack ads go, it perhaps didn’t have the impact Fine Gael would have hoped. While it was widely viewed online – there were over 42k views of this tweet alone – as this RTÉ analysis piece points out, it showed the risk of running an attack ad before you have all the information:

“Yet on the central charge – a Sinn Féin intention to squander €16bn currently squirrelled away in the twin rainy day funds – the party’s manifesto didn’t say what Fine Gael said it said.”

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke about the “cheek” of Fine Gael when she was interviewed on Virgin Media News that evening. “That ad is a lie – either that or Fine Gael can’t read,” countered McDonald. 

As an attack ad, it was somewhat of a damp squib. Yes, it garnered a day of headlines, but the online sentiment towards it wasn’t hugely positive. If anything, it gave those opposed to Fine Gael an opportunity to criticise the party on social media – and criticise they did.

Still, for Fine Gael it was a chance to show that it’s willing to fight a little dirty in the race to win in this year’s election. If there’s a lesson to be learned by any other parties planning to launch ‘attack ads’ in the coming week, it’s to choose your accusation wisely.

POLITICAL AD SPENDS

Fine Gael was the big spender this week when it came to ads across Meta platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram). While the other parties typically spent hundreds of euro on promoting ads, Fine Gael spent €1k – €1.5k on promoting 45 similar ads about its ‘older people’s guarantee’. The multiple versions of this ad were viewed up to 200k times.

Fianna Fáil’s ads this week on Meta platforms included two ads specifically about candidates – Senator Catherine Ardagh and Cllr Deirdre O’Brien – and two ads about its supporters’ draw competition.

After a slow start on the ad front, Sinn Féin began running several ads on Meta platforms, including a clip of party leader Mary Lou McDonald taken from the RTÉ Upfront show. Candidates are certainly savvy this year about milking their media appearances for all they’re worth, and being willing to pay for ads featuring these clips. But the party’s spend was much lower overall than Fine Gael, with it spending hundreds rather than thousands on promoting the ads.

The Green Party spent up to €399 on its Meta ads, two of which were still live on Friday, and both featuring party leader Roderic O’Gorman.

Meanwhile, Social Democrats’ ads on Meta platforms mainly featured party leader Holly Cairns. But it also paid to promote an unusual ad with candidate Cllr Eoin Hayes, who showed that a campaign ad can be impactful and comedic – with no ‘attacking’ necessary.

Unlike other parties, Labour focused not just on local or national issues in its Meta ads – one of its ads this week featured party leader Ivana Bacik talking about the war in Gaza.

Who are the parties targeting with their online ads? RTÉ’s Behind the Ballot podcast had an interesting guest on Thursday who shed some light on the parties’ interaction with social media.

Donagh Murphy of ThinkHouse shared analysis of the parties’ ad performance online, and what age groups they aim their ads at. He found that Fianna Fáil doesn’t appear to target people aged under 25 or 27 in its ads on Meta platforms, while Sinn Féin aren’t targeting their ads on these platforms at people aged over 44. For more of his insights, check out the full podcast.

WHICH PARTIES USE BLUESKY?

Twitter/X alternative Bluesky has attracted over a million new users since the recent US election, including many Irish users, over fears about misinformation on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. But have Ireland’s main political parties found a new home on Bluesky?

It turns out it’s not playing as much of a role in most parties’ social media strategies compared to other platforms. Sinn Féin and Labour both appear to have accounts which have never posted, while there’s no sign of a Social Democrats account (despite the party usually being great at online engagement).

Three active parties on Bluesky however are Fianna Fáil, People Before Profit and Fine Gael. But their reach just isn’t as good there as on established platforms yet – compare Fine Gael’s 958 (at the time of writing) Bluesky followers to the 62k it has on Twitter. While it’s wise of the parties to nab their spots on the site – and avoid imposters using their handles – it’s not yet an online space that will have a serious impact on GE24, unless something radical happens in the next week, which is highly unlikely.

THIS WEEK’S FACTCHECKING

This week has once again provided factcheckers an opportunity to analyse claims being made on the campaign trail.

The Journal factchecked a claim made by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald about Ireland’s Carbon Tax. While at a meeting of the National Council of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), McDonald said that the tax “has not reduced our emissions and is extremely unfair”. The Journal factcheckers looked at the evidence for the claim, and found it to be false, with a detailed verdict setting out the background to the tax and experts’ views on the issue.

An interesting example of how old news reports can be used to mislead voters cropped up on Tuesday. As explained in this Debunk by The Journal, an old headline has been doing the rounds that claims Simon Harris believes unvaccinated children should be barred from schools.

The headline actually comes from an article in the Irish Times in 2019, pointing to the need for voters to be cautious around the content they encounter on social media. Find more information here from EDMO around media literacy and how it can help you parse through what you’re seeing on social media.

IMMIGRATION

While much attention is being paid to what candidates post on their social media pages, this week saw the focus put on what a Fianna Fáil candidate posted in TikTok comments.

As the Irish Independent reported, an account owned by Longford-Westmeath hopeful Dympna Cunniffe posted comments on a TikTok account about a mooted asylum seeker accommodation centre in Athlone. The accommodation has been a contentious topic locally and videos of protests in the area have been shared on social media, including by Irish right wing accounts.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he didn’t “approve of the comments” by Cunniffe, while in a statement to the Irish Independent, Cunniffe said that the comments “should not be taken as statements”.

The Journal also reported that Cunniffe published a video about the temporary accommodation centre on TikTok, which was later deleted. While TikTok doesn’t allow political ads, politicians are free to use the platform to post what are called ‘organic’ videos – something which led to Simon Harris being called the ‘TikTok Taoiseach’.

TRENDS THIS WEEK

What topics saw the most interactions in the media and social media this week in the run up to GE24? Looking at data gathered by NewsWhip, housing was the big issue of the week in terms of articles published. The biggest days for coverage of the topic were Tuesday 19 November and Wednesday 20 November.