Candidates' Web Sites Get to Know the Voters

Any two people interested in whether Amanda Beard is dating fellow Olympian Michael Phelps, and who clicked on the Boston Herald tidbit that raced around the Web last week, got the same piece of gossip.

Rumored galpal Amanda Beard on Phelps: No Thanks!

What was different was the political ads that appeared -- or didn't -- beside the story.

Readers who had visited Barack Obama's Web site received as many as three Obama ads alongside the gossip. "Help Elect Barack Obama President of the United States" and "Visit the Barack Obama Website," the ads said. Read more…

The beat goes on.

The Oil Industry Calls on an Image Expert - WSJ.com : For two decades, industries facing image problems have turned for help to a Virginia-based market-research shop founded by President Reagan's former pollster, Richard Wirthlin. The company, formerly called Wirthlin Worldwide and now part of Harris Interactive Inc., has shaped multimillion-dollar campaigns for embattled products from plastics to bread to milk.
Now it's going to bat for Big Oil
In January, the oil industry will launch its first-ever major advertising campaign, scrambling to salvage a reputation suffering amid high gasoline prices and concern about fossil-fuel dependence. After this week's Democratic takeover of the House, the industry may face a more hostile political scene, threatened with stricter tax laws and with deeper resistance to the industry's desire to drill in new places. Read more…

5$ per post? 5 lousy dollars????? I'm deeply, deeply insulted. I won't work for anything less than 25$. We're High Quality here at Corrente. Hmmph..

It's funny to hear him say this because Murphy, who founded a Tampa-based interactive ad agency called MindComet, also runs a side business that pays bloggers to write nice things about corporate sponsors -- without unduly worrying about whether or not bloggers disclose these arrangements to readers. (A scan of relevant blog searches strongly suggests that, often, they don't.) Read more…