“There they are again.”
No, that wasn’t President Ronald Reagan, but Dennis Quaid, the actor who brings the late leader to life in “Reagan.” The film, which hits theaters Aug. 30, recounts the president’s remarkable life from his days as a humble lifeguard to leader of the free world.
It was “complicated” to make the film known, to use a common Facebook expression.
Quaid reported that Facebook (now officially known as Meta) initially prohibited “Reagan” marketers from promoting posts related to the film on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
“We are being censored by Facebook,” Quaid told the Spotify moderator. “The content (of the posts) was ‘an attempt to influence an election.'”
Newsweek reported that the problem began months ago after Quaid appeared on a podcast hosted by Dr. Jordan Peterson. Facebook blocked the film’s marketers from publishing a clip from that interview in an effort to increase brand awareness.
Another post that failed to boost on the platform? A photo of Quaid as President Reagan with the following quote:
“Don’t let anyone tell you that America’s best days are behind her – that the American spirit is defeated… We have seen it triumph too many times in our lives not to believe it now.”
By boosting posts, you can achieve a much greater reach and target selected demographic groups.
Rogan and Megyn Kelly, also a new media star, have sharply criticized Facebook following Quaid’s allegations. The “Reagan” team sent a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and asked for answers.
A Facebook employee publicly apologized via Newsweek.
“While there are no restrictions on this page that would prevent administrators from posting, we have identified some ads from this account that were incorrectly disapproved. This occurred because our automated systems incorrectly determined that content about President Reagan required prior approval under our policies for social, election, or political ads. This was an error, and the restriction on the ads has been lifted.”
The matter seemed to be resolved, although “Reagan’s” team stated that they had never heard directly from the company.
Then the film’s marketing people failed to promote another Reagan-themed feature just weeks before the film’s release.
And another one.
PR reps for Reagan shared screenshots with HiT showing that the platform blocked them from releasing new videos related to the film. The clips in question were from Rogan and Kelly’s respective podcasts.
Why?
The clips allegedly violated the platform’s “advertising standards, community standards or terms of service.”
The host of the “Megyn Kelly Show” described the flood of Facebook actions as “stupid”
“The irony behind Facebook’s ban on ‘Reagan’ ads is that this is a film about a historical figure who was a politician, but whose bipartisanship and friendship with the Democrats is an important part of the film,” Kelly told Hollywood in Toto.
“It’s a film about America and how we talked to each other and respected each other, regardless of political differences. As if on cue, Facebook is banning advertising of the film because they apparently see it as socially divisive,” Kelly added.
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Eric McClellan, Reagan’s director of digital marketing, denied that the posts in question had anything to do with the November presidential election.
“Our posts encourage discussion about our film among our fans and others. But Facebook has again rejected our ad, claiming it could ‘influence public opinion, influence people’s voting behavior and potentially affect the election outcome,'” McClellan told HiT.
HiT has asked Meta/Facebook for comment.
It’s ironic, since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted in 2022 that his platform suppressed news of the Hunter Biden laptop story at the behest of the U.S. government, a move that likely had far greater potential electoral impact than conversations about a president who died in 2004.
A 2022 poll conducted by the New Jersey-based Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics found that eight in 10 Americans believed the suppression of the laptop story had an impact on the 2020 election.
