Not content to leave Tom Cruise alone in a self promotional Adwords Campaign, the American Government is buying Adwords units in defense of American Foreign Policy.
The ad (pictured right) reads “Peace & Security, Creating security through improved relations and cooperation” and links through to a page on America.gov with a motto of “Telling America’s Story.” The page includes stories on Syria and Nuclear Reactors, Terrorists and other Bush Administration foreign policy news.
It’s not clear whether this ad is being displayed within the United States itself, or simply to the rest of the world. Tax payer money well spent, or waste of money propaganda via Adsense units? You can be the judge.
It’s going to where people are gathering. Nowadays that’s online. This effort is right up there with Radio Free Europe and Voice of America.
Ok Duncan…?
So this is what it takes to get on TechCrunch these days…
And this is bad because…why? You wanted to leave the ad biz all to Mr. Lee’s Hong Kong?
I think it is a good move.
I can’t seem to make them show up in Canada. Just searching for “American foreign policy”.
Its not April 1st again is it… “Peace and Security” and http://www.america.gov in the same ad? Me thinks its a joke, possibly paid for by Alkieda
http://fpolicy....reneurship.html
J Lane, I’m in Canada and that advert shows up if I search for “terrorism”.
War is Peace?
How do you know its sponsored by American Govt. ? any tom-dick-harry can buy Adwords.. GOOG doesnt give a shit.. where the link points to.. or who owns it.. or its spam. or whatever.. they are minting money.. cent by cent..
I can’t imagine if the Bush admin is behind it that it’s money well spent. They are utterly incapable of spending taxpayer money wisely.
note to self. more write offs. money not well spent
Hi Duncan,
This looks like a rectangle block type ad from adsense. Where did you find this ad? Which site?
Haven’t run across one of these myself. Quite interesting.
Are you an adwords police or something? How do you find these? first Tom Cruise and now this one.
Not a bad propaganda for justifying an expansion program into the middle east.
Everything happens on the net these days.
Someone should spell-check the site. In the bio section, see “revitilized” toward the end. Yikes!
@9 That’s kind of funny that they’d pick terrorism as a keyword…
Shit, the socialist in me just leaked out…
“Tax payer money well spent, or waste of money propaganda via Adsense units?”
Propaganda? How dare, you! Our rulers love us and our just protecting us from terrists. You are either with us or with the terrists and George Bush even said so himself. Don’t you know freedom is on the march?
Good move indeed. A tiny penny spent on adsense, millions more elsewhere.
Those who click the ad are either patriots of US, who love to hear the government’s message, or terrorists who want to waste American taxpayer’s money.
Now all you have to do is prove that the US government paid for the ad. Anyone can pay for an ad and point it to the government’s web site. You know, like one of the ~30% of Americans who approve of the Bush administration.
In any case, I’d think it would be beneficial for people to actually know the government’s position instead of having to rely on the media to present it to them correctly…
America.gov is a new State Department website to inform foreign audiences about U.S. policies, culture, and values. We buy Google Adwords in particular foreign countries to build awareness of the site.
Jonathan Margolis – U.S Department of State