News Kelly Loeffler darkens skin of Black opponent Raphael Warnock in new Facebook ad

[Nightrider]

Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., ran a paid Facebook ad last week that artificially darkened the skin color of her Democratic opponent, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is Black. In fact, the campaign used two of the same clips in their original form for another Facebook ad that ran the same day, but spent 10 times as much money boosting the version in which Warnock appeared darker.

According to the Facebook Ad Library, on Dec. 29 the Loeffler campaign spent between $3,000 and $3,500 on an ad called "Too Radical. Too Corrupt," and dropped between $40,000 and $45,000 on a second, more aggressive counterpart titled "Beyond Radical Raphael," which uses some of the same footage, but with Warnock's skin noticeably darkened

The two ads deploy similar copy, but the second spot — which as of Monday evening had racked up around 1 million impressions — is more aggressive. The first ad's caption claims that "Raphael Warnock is a Radical Liberal" who "was educated by Marxists." The caption for the darkened ad says that Warnock is "beyond Radical," and was "trained by Marxists." It ends: "Warnock isn't just radical — he's dangerous."

Loeffler, a former financial executive whose rapidly expanding wealth made her a billionaire last week, recently came under fire for appearing in a photo with Chester Doles, a white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard who maintains extensive ties to the neo-Nazi movement.

Kelly Loeffler's new Facebook ad darkens skin of Black opponent

The campaign spent 10 times as much boosting the ad as it did on another ad the same day that used untouched clips

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