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October 16, 2006

Stupid Monkeys and More Fun with Political Search Ads

Every once in awhile I like to test searches to see who's buying sponsored links in the political keyword arena. I stumbled upon some interesting buys when trying out a few searches on Google today, some of which included names of states with highly contested Congressional races.

Highbrow CGM site Gather.com seems to have purchased the term "senate" along with every state name, including "New Jersey Senate," "Florida Senate," and "Pennsylvania Senate." The ad text is altered a tad depending on the state, but the general template is "Debate The 2006 [insert state name here] Senate Race Now Through Election Night. Election2006.gather.com."

This kind of thing strikes me as really smart. New York Times and Electoral-Vote.com both have similar sponsored links resulting from a search on "Senate 2006."

"GOP elections" brought up an ad for the National Republican Senatorial Committee: "2006 Elections Help the NRSC elect Republican Senators Today! www.NRSC.org." "Senate races 2006" turned up an NRSC ad with the same text. "GOP elections" also resulted in an ad for "Official GOP Site" which read, "www.GOP.com Support the Republican National Committee and make a difference."

Of course, candidates and their cohorts are buying search ads, too. "Pennsylvania Senate" also brings up an AdWords ad for Republican Rick Santorum ("Discover More About Rick Santorum Working Hard For Pennsylvania State www.RickSantorum.com"). I'm pretty sure my pals at Connell Donatelli are behind this buy.

A search on "Minnesota Senate" resulted in an ad for Democrat Amy Klobuchar who you may have caught on this Sunday's Meet the Press. The text reads, "Join Klobuchar for Senate Support Democrat Amy Klobuchar Elect Minnesota's next U.S. Senator www.amyklobuchar.com."

"Democrats" turned up an ad for John Garamendi, candidate for Lt. Guv in California. Ad text: "Garamendi for Lt.Governor Learn How to Help John Fight for Education and Our Environment www.garamendi.org."

"Florida Congress" and "Democrats election" result in ads for Bob Bowman, Democratic candidate for Florida's 15th district House seat. The ads read, "Bob Bowman for Congress
www.bowman2006.com A combat veteran against the war. Send Dr. Bob Bowman to Washington!" He's not the only Dem expressing his military side online this year.

Though I didn't even attempt to do a search of terms based on names of tight race candidates today, I did notice this pleasant ad when searching for "Jim Webb," Senate candidate running against Republican George Allen in Virginia: "Jim Webb Is a Macaca By "Macaca" I mean the slang word for stupid monkeys. Vote GOP! www.LiberalsMustDie.com."

I don't know a thing about LiberalsMustDie.com. However, after browsing around for a few minutes, and stumbling upon an array of over-the-top misspelled statements such as," WWJD? Kick a Liberal in the Balls," I can't help but think it's a parody site created by left-wingers.

Posted by Kate Kaye at October 16, 2006 6:51 PM

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