Cambridge Analytica used fashion brands to elect Trump

Political marketing firm Cambridge Analytica supposedly “weaponized
fashion brands” to help put President Trump into office. Christopher
Wylie announced this surprising news at Business of Fashion’s Voices
conference on Thursday.

The former director of research for the marketing firm first became
a whistleblower earlier this year when he revealed that Cambridge
Analytica had misused data of millions of Facebook users.

Wylie presented evidence at Voices that shows Cambridge Analytica
had used Facebook users’ preferences for fashion brands to build
algorithms to target users with messaging to endorse Trump during the
2016 presidential election campaigns. Wylie explained that a fondness
of certain fashion labels can typically a signal of susceptibility to
populist political messaging.

“The difference between Facebook and the NSA is simple but
profound,” Wylie said. “The NSA’s targets are extremists, foreign
spies… on Facebook you are the target.”

Cambridge Analytica used five psychological and personality traits
including agreeableness and neuroticism, indicated by a like of brands
including Nike and Louis Vuitton, to target selected Facebook users
with political messaging. The firm assumed which users would respond
to pro-Trump messaging by determining which fashion brands they
liked.