TPUSA Spent Over $1 Million in 90 Days on Facebook Ads - Including Promoting Erika Kirk's 'I Forgive Him' Speech
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TPUSA Spent Over $1 Million in 90 Days on Facebook Ads - Including Promoting Erika Kirk's 'I Forgive Him' Speech
An examination of Turning Point USA's advertising spending reveals over $1 million spent on Meta platforms in just 90 days. The spending included paid promotions of Erika Kirk's memorial moments, the shirt Charlie Kirk wore when he died, and desperate attempts to fill a Georgia event that ended up largely empty despite $70,000 in advertising. The analysis raises questions about how a nonprofit organization allocates resources and whether monetizing grief crosses ethical boundaries.
Meta's advertising transparency tools reveal that Turning Point USA entities spent over $1 million on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads advertisements in just 90 days. The breakdown shows Turning Point PAC spent $425,000, TPUSA Events spent $300,000, Turning Point USA itself spent $250,000, and Turning Point Action spent $145,000. Additional spending came from TPUSA Students, the Charlie Kirk page (funded by Salem Media), TPUSA Faith, and pages associated with Andrew Kolvet and Alex Clark.
For comparison, The DailyWire+ - a commercial, for-profit entity - spent approximately $250,000 during the same period across their premium service, Ben Shapiro's page, and their main account. The contrast is striking: a commercial organization trying to generate revenue spent a quarter of what the nonprofit TPUSA spent.
Monetizing the Memorial: The 'I Forgive Him' Campaign
One of the most controversial advertising campaigns involved Erika Kirk's statement at the memorial service where she said she forgave the person responsible for her husband's death. TPUSA paid to promote this clip as a sponsored advertisement, spending a couple thousand dollars with the expectation of reaching over a million people. The ad ultimately reached approximately 800,000 people.
The decision to advertise a moment of forgiveness raises ethical questions about the commodification of grief and spiritual moments. Forgiveness is traditionally understood as a deeply personal, almost sacramental act in Christian theology. Recording such a moment and then paying to boost it on social media represents a departure from this understanding.
Promoting the Widow's Image
TPUSA spent $30,000 advertising a speech where Erika Kirk discussed finding rest amid chaos. In the video, she described her role at the organization not as a job but as something her husband built with his blood, sweat, and tears. She spoke about finding rest through reading God's word and surrounding herself with people who send her Bible verses and pray with her. The advertisement reached over a million people.
The purpose of advertising is typically to inspire action - whether that's buying a product, supporting a cause, or taking a specific step. In this case, the advertisements seemed designed primarily to build public support for Erika Kirk herself, presenting her as both a devoted Christian and worthy successor to her husband's legacy.
The Freedom Shirt Campaign
Perhaps the most morbid advertising campaign involved the shirt Charlie Kirk was wearing when he died. TPUSA spent between $80,000 and $90,000 promoting the "Freedom shirt" - literally asking people to purchase and wear the same shirt Kirk wore at the time of his death. The advertisement targeted primarily young men and represented a direct commercialization of the circumstances of Kirk's death.
Immediate Memorial Speech Promotion
Within five hours of Erika Kirk delivering her memorial speech, TPUSA had clipped the footage and began running paid advertisements. They spent approximately $15,000 promoting the clip where she stated, "After Charlie's assassination, we didn't see violence. We didn't see rioting. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival."
The rapid turnaround from memorial speech to paid advertisement struck many as inappropriate. Most people were still processing their grief five hours after the memorial service, yet the organization was already monetizing the widow's words.
The University of Georgia Event Disaster
TPUSA's advertising strategy became most apparent during their failed University of Georgia event featuring JD Vance and Erika Kirk. The organization ran three separate advertising campaigns for this single event, spending a total of $60,000 to $70,000 trying to fill the venue.
The first campaign followed their normal pattern, spending $30,000 to $35,000 and reaching between 100,000 and 500,000 people. When it became clear attendance would be poor, they launched a second campaign on April 14th, dumping another $10,000 to $15,000 into advertising. By April 12th, they ran a third emergency campaign for just 15 hours, spending another $15,000 to $20,000 and generating 700,000 to 800,000 impressions.
Despite this massive advertising investment - comparable to spending on successful events at the University of Idaho and Ohio State University - the Georgia venue remained largely empty. Video footage from just before the event shows vast sections of empty seats in the back, sides, and even much of the floor area. The emergency advertising blitz failed to generate the crowds TPUSA expected.
Comparison to Successful Events
The Georgia failure stands in stark contrast to other TPUSA events during the same period. An event at the University of Idaho featuring Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles received about $40,000 in advertising over nine days and was highly successful. An Ohio State University event with Savannah Chrisley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Lawrence Jones received about $20,000 in advertising and drew good crowds.
The Georgia event received more advertising money than either of these successful events, yet failed to generate attendance. This suggests the problem wasn't insufficient advertising but rather a lack of public interest in seeing Erika Kirk herself.
The Drewski Effect
The Georgia event took place in the wake of a viral skit by Drewski that reportedly received 150 million views and made fun of Erika Kirk. The timing suggests that public perception of Kirk had shifted significantly, and no amount of advertising could overcome the damage to her public image.
TPUSA's standard practice, established during Charlie Kirk's life, was to send photos of venue crowds to the speaker before events began. There's no reason to believe this practice changed after his death. If they maintained this protocol, Erika Kirk would have seen photos of the mostly empty venue before deciding not to appear, contradicting the official narrative of a security incident.
Salem Media's Role
Interestingly, all $30,000 spent advertising through the Charlie Kirk page was funded by Salem Media. This connects to previous reporting about Salem Media C-suite executive Brad Parscale receiving $46 million in funding, with $30,000 of that being directed to the Charlie Kirk page.
Recording Intimate Grief
The analysis concludes with a reflection on the recording and posting of intimate moments with Charlie Kirk's body at the memorial service. Video was recorded of Erika Kirk in highly personal moments with the casket and corpse, which was then posted to social media. This represents a level of public display of private grief that many find deeply inappropriate and manipulative.
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