The Bloomberg campaign is working with Meme 2020, whose lead strategist is the CEO of Jerry Media, to create sponsored posts on influential Instagram accounts
A campaign of sponsored content for the candidate flourished suddenly on Instagram. A new outfit, called Meme 2020, is behind it.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Bloomberg campaign's meme operation did not appear from nowhere: as far back as 2017, deep-pocketed donors were already funding viral content studios, with Democrats trying to catch up by building their own (donor-backed meme production). What changed this month is the platform's posture — Facebook moved within days of this story to let influencers produce paid political content for campaigns, provided posts are labeled as ads or paid partnerships (Facebook's new influencer rule).
The result is a fast-moving cat-and-mouse: Meme 2020, led by Jerry Media's CEO, buys reach through influential Instagram accounts, and days later several of those same high-profile accounts went private to dodge scrutiny of their Bloomberg-sponsored posts (accounts switching to private), while BuzzFeed flagged that #sponsored labels are often hard to spot.
First-order effects
- Bloomberg gains an unorthodox distribution channel on Instagram that bypasses traditional ad formats, while the meme accounts posting for him immediately face scrutiny — enough that several flipped to private profiles to post sponsored content away from public view.
Second-order effects
- Facebook's decision to permit clearly-labeled influencer political content makes the platform the arbiter of disclosure, forcing competitors' campaigns to either replicate the Meme 2020 playbook or attack the labeling loophole; BuzzFeed's reporting that #sponsored tags are easy to miss gives critics a concrete line of attack.
Third-order effects
- If paid-meme campaigning proves effective, influence peddling shifts from broadcast ad buys toward renting credibility through personal accounts — pushing regulators and platforms toward stricter disclosure rules for political content distributed through influencers rather than official campaign channels.
The trend: Political advertising is migrating from official campaign channels into rented influencer audiences, with platform disclosure rules — not campaign finance law — becoming the main checkpoint.