The former co-host of “The Circus” is now traveling the country on a different mission. Instead of trailing candidates making various campaign stops, Mark McKinnon is spending time on the road trying to find out what makes Gen Z, a cohort of 40 million voters, tick.
One question weighing on McKinnon, who also executive produced the docu-series that ran for eight seasons on Showtime, is what will it mean for the outcome of the presidential that Gen Z’s women are increasingly progressive and college educated, while men the same age are increasingly not going to college and turning very conservative? And that’s just one data point he says makes Gen Zers “highly unconventional and highly misunderstood.”
When C&E caught up with McKinnon for a recent interview, the former media consultant weighed in on the challenges facing practitioners today and why the presidential debates will matter more than ever in 2024.
Q: What’s your thought on how media consultants can navigate this extremely fractured audience environment?
McKinnon: People are understandably skeptical so the question is, how do you cut through that? We try to do that in different ways, but [back in 2004] we didn’t have the toolkit that people do today. Now, instead of reaching 350 million people with, like, one ad, you can reach five people a hundred different ways through microtargeting, and finding ways to slide into their DMs or TikToking them. It just makes me think how challenging and complicated my job must be today because you can’t just walk in and say, ‘Okay, here’s your 30-second ad.’
You’ve got to walk in with 20 or 30 different ways of getting to people — especially in an election where the universe going to decide this will be thousands of people. It’s the things at the margins that could change the minds of those hundreds or thousands of people that’ll decide this election in Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania.
Q: Do you feel like we’re at a tipping point where how campaigns communicate has permanently changed?
McKinnon: No question. Gen Z’s a great example because they are the future and they don’t believe anything. There’s just an ocean of shit out there so how do you navigate that landscape? And one of the things that we know is happening is that people, voters, are increasingly skeptical of everything they see, read or hear. So they’re relying increasingly on other people in their network that they know for information. That’s why we’re seeing the shift toward targeting individuals who have influence with other people.
Because people don’t rely on the news or even social media or general advertising anymore. They rely on information that they get from people who they think are reliable information transporters. So if you’re a political campaign, you’re trying to reach people who reach people.
Q: Is the campaign industry set up in a way that allows their clients (campaigns, groups) to effectively reach people in this environment?
McKinnon: I think the confounding proposition here is that there’s never been more money spent with less impact. There’s so much money and it’s doing so little. I’m imagining conversations that are going on with the media team in campaigns right now, and I’m just glad I’m not in the business anymore because [back in the day] I knew what the drill was, I knew what the target was, I knew what ammo would work. Now it’s just throwing so much at the wall and just hoping that something sticks somewhere. It’s hard for the campaigns and it’s hard for the people working on the campaigns because nobody really knows.
And so I’m sure there are a lot of dark arts going on, a lot of misdirection about data this and data that. It’s just a kabuki show that I think is very difficult for the campaigns, and difficult for the people doing the media, too, because it’s really unclear what works anymore.
Q: What are you watching for in the presidential campaign?
McKinnon: The media landscape is flooded with broadcast advertising, cable advertising, social media advertising, so it is just a wall of noise that people are getting. The things that will have impact are infrequent and more important than ever — like the debates.
This June debate is going to be huge. I think one of the smartest things the Biden campaign has done was to take hold of the narrative on the debates. Because one thing I know from doing lots of presidential campaigns is the most important perception about a candidate is the perception of strength, or on the flip side, weakness.
And that’s Biden’s problem. He’s seen as weak. And a big part of that problem, obviously, is because he’s old. That’s a problem he can’t fix. He’s not going to get any younger before November.
But by getting out there, instead of waiting until September and having Trump club him over the head every day about not debating, and then finally surrendering and doing it on his terms, [Biden] is now debating on his terms. They pick the platforms, take control of the rules, look stronger, look more competent.
Now, it’s a high wire act and I think there’s the definite possibility that Trump crushes him and then it’s fucking over.
