Columbus Craigslist Ad Seeks ‘People Of Color’ Actors For Campaign Events

A friend sent me a Craigslist link this afternoon that appears to be an ad seeking a “diverse group of young actors to fill seats at various GOP events throughout the fall campaign season.”

The ad was posted last Friday by an anonymous Craigslist user. The reply-to email is [email protected] and emails to that address have not received responses.

Specifically, whoever placed the ad would like to see more “POC actors.” POC is usually an acronym for people of color. As in, brown people or black people. So that their audience isn’t lily white.

Here’s a screenshot of the ad, and here’s the link.

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Craigslist (click to enlarge)

Here’s what it says:

Looking for diverse group of young actors to fill seats at various GOP events throughout the fall campaign season. Each campaign event is expected to last several hours and participants will be paid after quota of events attended (minimum 5 event obligation per week). POC actors particularly sought after for increased diversity appearance.

Attendees are expected to cheer candidates, dress appropriately and carry promotional material. Various events throughout battleground states anticipated with travel options available for top attendees. We will need players to help raise the profile of several events.

Contact via email for further details.

A quick web search netted an article by Cleveland.com reporting on the listing. The author is speculating that the ad could be a prank, as are some people on the web, because the idea of posting ads such as this was revealed in Democratic National Committee emails made public by Wikileaks. From Cleveland.com:

One internal email revealed that a DNC deputy communications director had proposed posting a fake ad seeking “hot” women to work for a Trump organization.

Also, there is this:

Last week, after many Bernie Sanders delegates walked out of the Democratic National Convention, an advertisement was posted to Philadelphia’s Craigslist also offering $50 each to 700 paid actors to fill “empty” convention seats. It’s still unclear whether that offer was genuine or not.

Ohio GOP rep Brittany Warner has “no idea” where the ad came from, and a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party denies any knowledge of the ad.

Is it legit? Who knows. What we do know is that politicians have paid actors in the past, particularly Donald Trump. But with all the election shenanigans of late, even by the DNC, who knows? We just report sh*t and hope for the best. The entire system seems to be corrupt.

As my friend said:

“Bet this is the first time you’ve seen the GOP willing to pay minorities a higher wage.”

Ha.

Featured image by Keith Allison, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) License.

I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.