The final stretch of Election 2024 has unleashed an ad-pocalypse, filling screens across America with the colors of democracy — or the influence of the dollar, depending on your perspective. Campaigns and political groups poured $994M into ads in the past week alone. This spending spree represents roughly one-tenth of the entire $10B political advertising budget deployed since early 2023, illustrating just how fiercely competitive and costly elections have become.

• The presidential race leads the charge with $272M in ad spending, as Trump’s campaign slightly edges out Harris with $43.4M compared to the Democrats’ $40.7M.
• Down-ballot contests are drawing massive investments, with Senate and House races pulling in $435M across key battlegrounds like Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

Tech giants take precautions: While campaigns ramp up their ad spending, tech giants are strengthening measures against election misinformation. Google will halt election-related ads after Nov. 5, and Meta has limited new political ads in the final week. However, Perplexity is seizing the opportunity created by this ad block by launching an AI-powered election information hub. This model leverages data from Democracy Works and The Associated Press to provide voters with real-time updates and polling information — though early testing has revealed some accuracy issues, underscoring the risks of using AI for election coverage.