Gippsland advertising games

May 11, 2008, 10:00pm,  207 views

Search for Gippsland by-election Labor candidate Darren McCubbin on Google and up comes an ad for Nationals hopeful Darren Chester.

Search for Liberal candidate Rohan Fitzgerald and up comes an ad for, you guessed it, Darren Chester.

There’s nothing illegal or unethical about this; in fact it’s rather clever.

McCubbin and Fitzgerald could easily counter by purchasing their own Google ads.

It’s good to see a candidate embrace the internet age. As for McCubbin, I still can’t find a website for him.

There’s not even a Gippsland by-election link on the front page of either the Labor Party’s national or Victorian websites.

I found it amusing though to see the ALP has set up a site called Nelson Facts, which takes a swipe at the Opposition leader.

Update: I have to add a disclaimer. The ubiquitous Chester is even advertising on this site, at least he was last night if you visited the Gippsland tag. The way it works, according to Google AdWords:

When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to the search results. Now you’re advertising to an audience that’s already interested in you.

I imagine “Gippsland” is one of his keywords.