Bidding for President: The Republicans May 7, 2007

Posted by Steve Petersen in Advertising, Google, Politics

I took a look at who is buying Google text ads for searches for Democratic contenders in the 2008 presidential election.  Let's now look at the Republicans.

Read below for the ads that I found.  Here's a few general trends I found:

  • Unlike the Democrats, some lower tier candidates had several ads comparable to the front runners.  See Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee.
  • It seems like Republican searches have more advertisers — Giuliani and Romney.
  • YouTube ads are not as prevalent with Republicans.  This is probably because less GOP contenders have made deals with the site than Democrats.
  • The only two candidates I've seen buying ads for searches for opponents' names are Republican — Giuliani and McCain.

For simplicity's sake, I am using the Washington Post's candidate list and only focusing on the ads that show up when I search for the candidate with the spelling from WaPo.  The ads are listed in they appear.

Republicans

Sam Brownback

  • JoinRudy2008 from joinrudy2008.com
    • Rudy Giuliani is trying to cannibalize is opponents.  Politics… don't you just you love it? 
  • Sam Brownback 2008 Gear from Zazzle.com
    • We saw this Cafe Press clone a couple times with the Democrats.
  • Your Vote Counts from DeclareYourself.com
    • We've also seen this youth oriented site that is, of this posting, still interested in 2004.

Jim Gilmore

  • James Gilmore: Speaking from EaglesTalent.com
    • Umm… wrong Jim.  However, you can $20,000 in speaker fees for a chit chat with the Jim who isn't running for prexy.

Newt Gangrich

  • Draft Newt '08 from DraftNewt.org
    • He's not running yet, but some want him to.
  • Winning the Future – Free from ConservativeBookClub.com
    • False advertising!  The book isn't free; you have to join to get the book for "free."
  • Newt for President from wewantnewt.com
    • "We want" seems less militant than "Draft."
  • Newt Gingrich from DeclareYourself.com
    • All these voting information sites are sure betting that Gingrich will run…
  • Watch Newt Gingrich from GenerationEngage.com
    • This site thinks young hipsters will want to watch him.
  • Newt Gingrich Newsletter from WinningTheFuture.net
    • Advertising Gingrich's book makes more cents sense than betting he'll run.

Rudy Giuliani

  • JoinRudy2008 from JoinRudy2008.com
    • It seems obvious that a candidate should buy ads for searches of their own name, but this is a rarity right now.
  • Giuliani on YouTube from YouTube
    • I think that YouTube should advertise for every name searched — kind of like eBay.
  • Hilary vs. Rudy? from Marketplace.org
    • Public radio's business show Marketplace from American Public Media (not NPR) has bought a link to a story that discusses who is better for Wall Street.  This is your NPR pledge dollars at work on Google!
  • John McCain for President from JohnMcCain.com
    • McCain has bought ads for someone else's name… What a brat!  A smart brat that is.
  • Your Vote Counts from DeclareYourself.com
    • Good thing we didn't hear much about those hanging chads in 2004.
  • 2008 GOP Voting Guide from HumanEvents.com
    • This seems logical — a conservative voting guide from a conservative site.
  • Rudy Giuliani 2008 Gear from Zazzle.com
    • Wanna a "Rudy for President" apron?

Chuck Hagel

  • Chuck Hagel for 2008? from GenerationEngage.org
    • Finally, an instance when a site is explicit that it is unsure if someone who is undeclared is running or not. 

Mike Huckabee

  • JoinRudy2008 from joinrudy2008.com
    • Cool!  John McCain isn't the only smart brat to buy ads for someone else's name.
  • Mike Huckabee from DeclareYourself.com
    • No more attempts at snide remarks about this site.
  • 2008 Voting Guide from HumanEvents.com
    • This guide is for GOP contenders; I wonder if this conservative organization has one about the Democrats.
  • Mike Huckabee 2008 Gear from Zazzle.com
    • These Zazzle ads are no long bedazzling to me.

Duncan Hunter

John McCain

  • John McCain for President from JohnMcCain.com
    • At least somebody hopes to woo people who search for their name.
  • JoinRudy2008 from joinrudy2008.com
    • Fight!  These two like to advertise with other candidates' names.
  • Your Vote Counts from DeclareYourself.com
  • John McCain Interview from comedycentra.com
    • McCain joked that when he was in Iraq he bought Jon Stewart an IED to go under this anchor desk…

George Pataki

Ron Paul

Mitt Romney

Tom Tancredo

  • 2008 Voting Guide from HumanEvents.com
    • Let's hope that illegal immigrants didn't contribute to the publishing of this guide.

Fred Thompson

  • Fred Thompson Store 2008 from OfficialThompsonStore.com
    • Thompson is not behind this site, but at least Cafe Press and Zazzle aren't daring enough to claim that they're "official."
  • Fred Thompson 2008 from grassrootsvoter.com
    • The grass roots are routing for a Thompson run.

Granted, the ads display are constantly in flux based upon keyword popularity, a site's relevance to the keyword, time of day, etc., but this analysis gives us an idea of who is trying to bank in on the candidates. If a candidate isn't listed, there were no ads under their name.

Share

Trackbacks/Pings

Comments

  1. Vote -1 Vote +1ivaukr - May 13th, 2007 at 2:07 am

    Hi My Name Is ivaxiy.

About this blog

The Bivings Report (TBR) is a source of news, insight, research, analysis and conversation on web-based communications and its increasingly powerful role in the economy, politics and society. TBR content is created, posted and managed by internet strategists, media/communications analysts, web developers, designers and programmers, all of whom are employees of The Bivings Group.



Email Subscription

Delivered by FeedBurner

Search Site


Archives


Most Popular


Authors


Tags