OTTAWA — Her kids are not reading the newspapers on her kitchen counter. Instead, they're looking at their phones to find information. That's the example that Treasury Board President Anita Anand brings up when she's asked about the federal government's efforts to get its message out via payments to social-media influencers.
She says it worries her that actors who seek to spread disinformation can more easily do that on the platforms where members of the younger generation, including her own kids, spend their time. Since 2021, federal government departments and agencies have spent at least $1.7 million on influencers, and influencer marketing campaigns and strategies, documents recently tabled in the House of Commons and publicly available contracts show.
It's just a fraction of what the government otherwise spends on traditional advertising. "We need to evolve with the times," Anand, who holds the government's purse strings, said at a recent press conference. Most of the social-media money is going towards institutions that have public service announcements to put out about health, travel or other topics that are also fodder for newspaper ads or commercials on TV and radio.
Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada are all tapping influencers, or people on social-media who have built large audiences and sometimes have a reputation for expertise on certain topics. Not all departments disc.