The New Web Tactics of Politics: Cookies for Targeting and Retargeting

Source: "Candidates' Web Sites Get to Know the Voters: Presidential Campaigns Tailor, Target Ads Based on Visitors' Online Habits," Peter Whoriskey, The Washington Post Staff, August 30, 2008.

Recent visitors to the online sports pages of the Boston Herald who had visited Barack Obama's Web site received as many as three Obama ads alongside the news. Readers who hadn't visited his site didn't see a single Obama add.

Both presidential campaigns are reluctant to discuss the details of their abilities to identify sympathetic voters based on their Internet habits, and then to target them with ads as they move across the Web. However, this emerging capability is one of the defining aspects of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.

Digital advertising networks and large Web companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft are using Web behavior -- which news articles people read, which blogs they visit or what search terms they enter -- to target voters who may be sympathetic to a certain cause. Using a method known as "sentiment detection," some companies even boast that they can tell whether the blog you go to is for or against the Iraq war.

"During a get-out-the-vote drive, you don't want to get out the wrong vote," said Diane Rinaldo, political advertising director at Yahoo, which has worked with both campaigns. With these techniques, the candidates "can reach who they want to reach without wasting their incredibly valuable media dollars, and reach them with the right message."

Comment: Unfortunately, the campaigns will probably be more effective than ever in getting us to vote our prejudices, and mine our unconscious for feeli;ngs about candidates, rather than study the issues and vote rationally. JAD
Source of graph: "Reshaping Attitudes: Mass Media Changes Along with the News," The Hoover Institution, April 2, 2008.