expertSEM

The presidential political race is heating up and the contest is shaping up to be extremely close. The undecided voters will most likely decide our next president. With that in mind every opportunity to reach out to these voters is critical and the impressions McCain/Obama make will likely tip the scales.

Like many Americans I have read countless articles on the bailout plans and while reading the article shown below was a bit perturbed by the tone of the McCain ad in the sponsored links section.

McCain asks for money during Bailout

This would have been an excellent opportunity to address the economic bailout. Instead of asking for donations the ad copy could have addressed the country’s economic concerns, something along the lines of “read john mccain’s maverick economic policy, how mccain/palin will get the economy back on track”. I would have clicked on the ad and perhaps been persuaded that this ticket knows how to help out our economy.

This is an example of contextual and or site placement targeting gone wrong. It is difficult to control messaging in this type of medium when the advertisers don’t know the content of each article. However a good creative team would realize the importance of the economic issues facing this country (and also that Obama is viewed in the polls as more adept to assisting the economy) and instead of asking for money they could address this problem head on.