Yet a New Kind of Political Advertising

Just what we needed - creative uses for pay per click (PPC) as political advertising!

In seems that the Eliot Spitzer campaign organization bought the keyword "AIG" in Google Adwords and briefly ran political ads for Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General who is running for governor and who is also investigating the AIG insurance group, according to an article in Online Media Daily. It cost just 31 cents per click to take surfers to a pro-Spitzer, anti-AIG web site. Spitzer stopped the practice when reporters brought it to his attention.

But then at least two anti-Spitzer groups bid on the "AIG" keyword and began their own campaign.

So we're left with a new slant on negative political advertising that will also bid up the prices for keywords.