Donald Trump and Joe Biden are spending ridiculous money trying to woo older women voters

In Mel Brooks's classic musical satire The Producers (1967), unscrupulous theatrical impresario Max Bialystock bankrolls his disastrous Broadway stage productions by seducing elderly dowagers, prising cheques out of the old dears in exchange for affection.

As America gears up for its 2020 election race, Donald Trump and arch-rival Joe Biden appear to be employing similar tactics.

Trump has spent $5m (£3.9m) on Facebook advertising in the past year, according to The New York Times, some 75 percent of which is dedicated to voters aged over 45.

Fifty-six percent of that $5m total is accounted for by ads specifically intended to appeal to conservative-minded women.

The information is available for anyone to view by simply sifting through Facebook's Ad Library, where anybody is able to view each campaigns spending on Facebook and what types of adverts which campaign is buying.

Biden only declared his candidacy this spring but outspent Trump in May by $1.1m (£874,000) to the incumbent's $940,000 (£747,000).

The Democrat's focus on older voters is even higher - accounting for 82 percent of his total Facebook advertising spend so far - as is his zeroing-in on women (phrasing, sorry), for whose eyes 65 percent of Diamond Joe's advertising is intended.

Why? The answer appears to be simply that older people and women are statistically more likely to actually turn out and vote at the ballot box.

Janes Hughes, director of the Bully Pulpit think-tank who analysed the data, explained to Mashable:

Older people are more likely to vote than younger folks, and both Biden and Trump both know that women are key to winning in 2020.

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