Annise Parker is in your Internets

She’s in mine, anyway. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but an awful lot of the websites I surf to now feature a familiar face looking back at me:

Annise_Cracked

Here’s another:

Annise_TBogg

Clearly, she’s seeking to dominate the liberal nerd humor vote. Of course, there are Facebook ads:

Annise_Facebook

Facebook is the one place I’ve seen other ads. Ben Hall has placed a few, mostly touting his Facebook page. I know some other candidates have spent money on Facebook ads, but as yet I’ve not seen them.

You know how at the bottom of articles on some websites there’s a listing of “related” stories that you might want to read, that are mostly sponsored links? She’s there, too.

Annise_Chron

And not just in the Chronicle:

Annise_Slate

Even out in LaLa Land:

Annise_LATimes

Too bad they can’t control the stories they get associated with. Some of them might be hard to compete with for clicks.

Anyway. Web advertising is hardly new, though this particular tactic is one I don’t recall seeing before. They’ve clearly done a good job of targeting, since it’s hardly a coincidence all these things appeared for my benefit. I don’t know how expensive this is – clearly, Team Parker dropped a decent amount of cash on it – but it seems likely to me that doing this on a perhaps more modest scale would be viable for many campaigns. Of course, I’m assuming people take notice of these things, never mind click on them. Have you been noticing these ads? What do you think about them?

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7 Responses to Annise Parker is in your Internets

  1. Greg Wythe says:

    “They’ve clearly done a good job of targeting, since it’s hardly a coincidence all these things appeared for my benefit.”

    Actually, it probably is.

    Re-Marketing is precisely what allows any budget for online ads (massive statewide or modest local-sized) to be stretched and maximized. Basically, you get a cookie if you visit a website or landing age with the appropriate code. And then the ad placements like the ones you highlight insert ads from the client. Very affordable and it means you’re spending $ on folks who are likelier to have an interest in you rather than “cold-calling” other surfers.

  2. PDiddie says:

    AdBlocker Plus, thank Jeebus.

  3. Ross says:

    I second adblocker plus. I almost never see ads, unless I turn them on for a site.

  4. Amen to what Perry and Ross said. Otherwise, per what Greg said, I don’t know how much it’s reached into political ads yet, but programmatic ad buying is the big thing for online ads in general. Middleman brokers, using big computers and data-crunching, look for where ad space is the cheapest.

  5. byron schirmbeck says:

    It’s funny how it works, almost everything I see on ads is the attacks on Ben Hall, I don’t recall seeing an ad FOR parker online, just her ads AGAINST Hall.

  6. Steven Houston says:

    Those complaining about Parker’s attack ads should remember that negative campaigning has traditionally worked in Houston. Given Hall’s flaws, not to mention the flaws of her other opponents, I don’t think Parker had to go that route nearly so heavily, especially with how things have been in the city of late but the flip side of the question also arises; how can you complain about Parker’s negative ads and not Hall’s? At very least, hers are grounded in specifics (his tax evasion, refusal to release tax records, his cashing in on his city attorney job, not really living in Houston, etc. etc.) while his are much more nebulous and generalized.

  7. Joe says:

    FWIW, I’ve been getting her video ads in my Hulu watching and sponsored links on ESPN.

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