University of Michigan grad hopes ads on porn sites will deter Trump voters

ANN ARBOR, MI - Men watch porn, and millions of men will vote for Donald Trump, said digital marketer and University of Michigan graduate Wally Nowinski.

Nowinski has formed a political action group aimed at those men. His political advertisements found on adult websites warn of Project 2025’s call to ban pornography and connect Trump to the effort.

The 10-second advertisement reads: “Trump’s Project 2025 will ban porn. Enjoy while you can.” Nowinski hopes this reaches a certain type of Trump voter willing to break off over certain policies.

“There are millions and millions and millions of men across the swing states who are leaning towards Trump, who do not read the news, who don’t find the last 12 years of anti-Trump messaging persuasive, who might actually like him because of that,” Nowinski said. “So I thought, maybe I can run a relevant message to them at a highly noticeable time in an unexpected way.”

Project 2025, a 922-page conservative outline to change U.S. policy and law, states in its foreword “pornography should be outlawed.” However, it is unclear if this means pornography in general or just “transgender ideology and sexualization of children” some conservatives see in LGTBQ material in schools and libraries.

The people who produce and distribute pornography should be imprisoned, the foreword states. “Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”

Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025, saying at the Sept. 10 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that he has purposefully avoided reading it. There is overlap between Trump’s agenda and Project 2025, according to The Associated Press.

Nowinski thinks Trump’s distancing from Project 2025 is more about not drawing more malleable voters to it.

“I don’t think the Trump campaign is likely to push back too much on our porn campaign, because it would be bad for them to draw... more attention to the extreme cultural agenda in Project 2025 because it divides his base,” Nowinski said.

Nowinski first got involved in Democratic Party issues while at the University of Michigan, covering the 2006 state proposal to ban affirmative action at Michigan universities. After graduating in 2007, Nowinski, now in San Francisco, became a Democratic Party consultant in the 2010 and 2012 general elections in direct mail and digital advertising.

He then spent about a decade in the tech marketing space before finding the idea for FTW PAC, his “Freedom to Watch” political action committee behind the porn ads. Since its formation in late August, the PAC has spent about $15,000 on the advertisements, according to Open Secrets.

Unlike traditional avenues to reach voters like TV, many demographics get their news and messaging through alternative means such as podcasts, Nowinski said. Just this year, Trump appeared on multiple comedians’ shows and Harris showed up on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

Nowinski saw a new avenue with porn ads, which he said are traditionally seen as a “third rail of online advertising” that only pornographers and crypto scammers use.

“Trump is doing very well with disengaged men,” Nowinski said. “I am not a podcast host. I’m not like Joe Rogan or something, but what I can do is buy ads in this place that are cheap and are going to hit...it is an efficient way to reach a lot of them.”

Some of those disengaged men Nowinski calls “Barstool bros,” named after the sports content and betting company Barstool Sports run by fellow University of Michigan alum Dave Portnoy. While admittedly conservative, Portnoy pushed back against the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which made Nowinski think this demographic of male readers can be reached.

“Part of the theory here is that Trump has done particularly well with Barstool bros, people who might find the cultural conservatism of (vice presidential candidate) J.D. Vance and Trump’s advisors working on Project 2025 repelling and off-putting,” Nowinski said. “What I’m trying to do here is highlight that rift in the Republican Party.”

FTW is a super PAC and can solicit and spend unlimited sums of money as long as it does not coordinate with particular campaigns. Nowinski has not heard from the Harris campaign at this time.

“I’m pretty committed to the rules about not coordinating,” he said.

The method of engaging in adult website might be unsavory, Nowinski said, but said he sees it as an opportunity.

“There’s a lot of people there, and it’s a highly relevant message at a time that is important.”