New York (AFP)

Democratic nomination contestant Michael Bloomberg's campaign team confirmed on Thursday that it is collaborating on Instagram with specialists in "memes", viral comic images on the internet, another illustration of its record advertising spending and its desire to reach an audience young.

The team of the billionaire and ex-mayor of New York "collaborates with creators of content on social networks, including in the world of memes", confirmed to AFP a spokesperson.

These "content creators" are a kind of influence, widely followed on networks, but which stand out by offering humorous messages.

Extremely popular, memes - often a photo, a video montage - circulate by the thousands every day on social networks.

Among the Instagram accounts of "content creators" recruited by Mr. Bloomberg are notably those of fuckjerry (15 million subscribers), grapejuiceboys (2.7 million) or tank.sinatra (2.3 million).

The three published screenshots of (fake) private exchanges, in a humorous tone, with Michael Bloomberg on Instagram on Wednesday.

These messages, they emphasize, are indeed "sponsored by Mike Bloomberg".

In one of them, the 77-year-old candidate explains that it was his granddaughter who told him about this account and that he is ready to spend a billion dollars to look like the cool candidate , photo of him in oversized shorts and polo shirt in support.

A desire therefore to divert with humor the attacks on his age or his fortune.

Michael Bloomberg's campaign team explained this digital strategy by its desire to compete with Donald Trump online, even if he is best known for his heavy use of Twitter.

"We bet it will be an effective element to reach people and compete with Donald Trump's digital strategy," said the candidate's spokesperson.

She didn't specify how much Mr. Bloomberg could spend on creating memes.

But the latter, one of the richest men in the world, is already breaking the records for advertising spending in this campaign with more than $ 340 million spent in three months.

He is also the one who buys the most digital ads since the start of his campaign, with more than 50 million already invested on various social networks, according to the company Advertising Analytics.

While he has not participated in any debate yet and was not among the candidates for the first two stages of primary, in Iowa and New Hampshire, he often finds himself accused of "buying" his place in the election. In national polls, it is currently in 3rd place.

© 2020 AFP