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
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.
