The ad calls Arnie a "corporate special interest doormat" and suggests he should "be a hero for California families."

If you're not familiar with the surge tactic, a.k.a. the Google Network Blast, there's lots more on it here and here.

The Service Employees International Union and the California School Employees want to make sure when state legislators finally pass a now-overdue budget, that schools, healthcare and other services are not cut. The ads link to www.commonsense4ca.org.

Sacramento is, of course, the state capital, and apparently the unions are hoping to hit state legislators with the ads as the budget crisis drags on. Still, one may wonder why they'd expect to reach lawmakers over the Fourth of July weekend. If they were real Americans wouldn't they be heading to their home districts to BBQ and watch fireworks with their families this weekend?

I kid about the 'real American' thing, but c'mon, how many of these people are going to be in Sacramento over the long weekend?

Well, I just got off the phone with an SEIU spokesperson who tells me the target is not only legislators and citizens, put "opinion leaders" living there. That means Sacramento-based media.

In case you didn't notice, Microsoft is the latest advertiser to use a pushdown ad -- a new unit introduced by the Online Publishers Association. The Bing ad appeared on wsj.com today and nytimes.com yesterday and June 8. A similar ad also ran on Msnbc, according to a Microsoft spokesman.

What's more, Microsoft is using creative from the campaign in other placements -- including including interstitials, homepage and channel roadblocks -- on Huffington Post, Slate, and Federated Media, the spokesman said.

Bud Light will add its branding to the "ESPN Zoom" game, available both online and in the free mobile app.

Experian, a reputable credit scoring service, apparently thinks so.

Experian's ConsumerInfo.com ad, as seen on AOL.com, before activating animation:

Experian's ConsumerInfo.com ad after activating animation:

The OPA announced today that Brands from Frito-Lay to Mercedes-Benz will use the organization's new ad formats, devised in part to help publishers better monetize their content through premium ad placements. (Check out a recent ad for Garnier using a new OPA format.)

Bank of America, Frito-Lay, Mercedes-Benz, hospital Cleveland Clinic, and insurance provider CNA are among brands that have used or plan to use the formats. The units do things like expand briefly before collapsing back to a smaller size, or moving up and down as the user scrolls.

In promoting its Mercedes-Benz 2010 E-Class vehicles, the automaker has employed various rich media formats to exude the brand's high-tech features. "We're tying that association with our vehicle and expressing the latest technology as well," Mercedes-Benz USA Digital Media Specialist Beth Lange told me earlier today. Razorfish Seattle developed the digital campaign, which also includes 3-D units.

The question is how are the OPA ads any different from any other rich media ad unit? According to Lange, the standardization is a key factor. Publishers, she explained, "were very concerned about the user experience and not being intrusive, and they wanted a standardized format." Although other large rich media units have been available in the past, she continued, they "may not correlate to a good user experience."

Of course, premium ads in premium placements on premium sites cost money. "When you go for these more high profile placements," said Lange, "there always is a higher premium than a standard run-of-site. I think if you can obtain a good user experience and a stronger position its worth paying for."

Fans of Billy Mays are rallying on Twitter and YouTube to pay tribute to the TV pitchman for OxiClean, Kaboom, and OrangeGlo.

Mays, 50, died unexpectedly this weekend.

Some are wearing blue and encouraging others to do. (#wearblue4billy)

Other tributes are popping up on YouTube, including this rap song and video and photo montage.

The pitchman's son, Billy Mays III, a.k.a., @YoungBillyMays, also reached out to supporters on Twitter, asking people to send in photos for a collage and thanking well wishers for their tweets. "Just want you all to know that I've read EVERY single reply and they've greatly helped me get through this day. Thank you," he wrote.

Pay Per Candidate is a new performance-based payment option for Yahoo HotJobs ads, allowing job recruiters to pay based on the number of people who respond to a job ad, rather than per job listing.

According to the company press release, the product lets employers and recruiters "cap the number of pre-screened candidates they receive per job posting when candidates apply on the HotJobs website." The advertiser pays only when a job seeker applies for the position or clicks-through to the recruiter's site.

The system also can automatically filter out inappropriate candidates based on the information they provide in customized online questionnaires.

By offering this payment option, Yahoo has indicated that there's a need to provide greater incentive to advertisers to use HotJobs. The economy could be a factor here since fewer companies are hiring. Or, perhaps Yahoo is letting advertisers pay for performance out of the goodness of their hearts....

On Thursday Yahoo hosted a beach luncheon across from the Carlton Hotel. In attendance were R/GA's Bob Greenberg, former Martha Stewart co-CEO Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo head of sales Joanne Bradford, Sapient's Alan Wexler and Freddie Laker, among others. Click above for photo descriptions and additional pics from around the Cannes festival, or view the slideshow below.

By far the most visible of the Internet giants is premier sponsor Microsoft. There's a Microsoft lounge, Microsoft-sponsored sessions, a Microsoft beach club, two Microsoft Surface tables, and a big flippin' Microsoft sign plastered onto the front of the Palais. As if that all weren't enough, Steve Ballmer won Media Person of the Year last night.

Google is here too. A YouTube cocktail bar on the lower level is giving away watermelon zingers and smoothies. There's also a YouTube booth of sorts, near much of the mounted work. Google's Eric Schmidt will be here Friday.

Yahoo's approach is perhaps most unique, if scaled back from previous years. The company is giving away branded flip-flops from a Yahoo Loves Creatives" truck that's been puttering up and down La Croisette all week, and it hosted a beach luncheon this afternoon.

AOL is the one Web media heavy-hitter that appears not to be in Cannes at all. No one ClickZ spoke with had seen hide nor hair of the company or its execs. That's perhaps understandable in light of the upheaval at the soon to be spun-off Time Warner unit. Yet at a time when AOL is eager to revamp its image with the ad community, skipping this party seems like a missed opportunity.

Specific Media made a splash with a 10th anniversary party at its new Manhattan outpost on 745 Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park and the landmark Plaza Hotel. (Sorry, forgot the camera.)

At the party last week, I got a chance to meet Chief Operating Officer Chris Vanderhook, one of the three brothers who founded and manage the business that has a headquarters in Irvine, CA. CEO Tim Vanderhook and Russell Vanderhook, SVP were both there, too.

The sleek offices are on the 20th floor in an Art Deco structure built in 1930. It's worlds away from its old home in the Empire State Building in the dull midtown south neighborhood.

For the party, Specific Media brought in Nikki Cassone and Camille Becerra, contestants from Bravo's "Top Chef" reality show to off their cooking skills. Plus, chef Scott Fagan from Tip of the Tongue catering and his team prepared sushi, dim sum, sliders, and calories-for-the-road dessert bags.

For the record, Specific Media has 13 employees in its NYC office and it's hiring, according to a spokeswoman. Based on unique visitors, Specific Media is the fifth largest ad network, according to comScore.

WPP and Microsoft aim to figure that out. And, surely, the lately very Bing-centric Microsoft has an agenda to prove search is a fantastic brand building medium. According to a WPP statement, the firms are partnering to determine "The correlation between brand awareness and search efficacy; How search engines are changing consumer behavior; How social marketing impacts the search for brands; [and] The connections between paid search and brand development."

Three WPP agencies, branding-focused Brand Asset Consulting, direct response agency Wunderman, and Web strategy and SEO firm ZAAZ, will guide the research project.

Some shots from in and around the Cannes Lions festival yesterday and today. Click for larger images and descriptions, or browse all Cannes photos on Flickr.

Speaking with me at the IAB Europe's Interact Congress in Brussels earlier this month, IAB president Alain Heureux stressed the importance of involvement from respected industry players in order to help promote self-regulation of the industry within Europe. The addition of these major firms as members is a sizeable step towards that. According to Heureux, AOL's Platform A, and Yahoo should both be on board as members by September.

IAB Europe currently represents 20 national IAB's across the continent.

I snapped this shot of Cannes attendee Bruno Bertani as we both enjoyed a brief escape from the tomb-like Palais des Festivals. Bruno is up for a Design Lion this week for work he did for Brazilian gay rights group Arco-Iris. He and fellow creative director Ricardo Saint-Clair created posters, a logo, and Web elements for the "No Homophobia" project. The project was handled by Rio de Janeiro-based Dialogo Design.

Bruni's a regular traveler to New York, and a first time traveler to Cannes.