The U.S. political scene walks a fine line between privatization and public domain; while there are strict limits on what corporations can do in sponsoring a political candidate, each candidate does advertise using campaign funds. As we slowly approach the 2012 presidential election, the re-election campaign for Obama – as well as for many other candidates – is already starting. Google, who has previously been accused of unfairly favoring Obama, is already part of a scandal. The company, however, denies the accusations.
Here’s specifically what happened: Obama’s re-election campaign had an advertisement on the RealClearPolitics website. The ad was part of an experimental model that follows a CPL (cost per lead) format. Multiple Republican representatives then contacted Google, requesting that they get access to the same CPL advertising. A Google sales representative indicated that the project was “pre-Alpha,” and only a select few clients were being offered the format; in other words, she indicated that Google was giving Obama’s re-election campaign special access.
A Google spokesperson (Jake Parrilo) addressed the issue, stating that the claims of the sales representative (Sirene Abou-Chakr) were inaccurate; it’s likely that she was simply using exaggeration in an attempt to sign up the Republican candidates for the service’s beta release. The CPL format is a current Google experiment, but Obama’s re-election campaign has no special access to it. Parillo even indicated that “we have not sold a single CPL (cost-per-lead) ad unit to any political candidates or committees.”
This does raise questions about the original ad displayed on the RealClearPolitics site, but no one has yet verified who was running those advertisements or what the exact content of those ads was.
[Sources include: The Daily Mail]
