Political/Social/Environmental Issues & SEM

I've written a couple times in the past about how great I think paid search can be as a way for individuals to express their viewpoints on political, social and environmental issues to a wider audience.

Currently I'm running a PPC campaign - as always out of my own pocket - in a protest of sort over Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'. What doesn't matter for this blog is what my particular viewpoint is; what *is* interesting, however, is that I'm getting very good CTR on this campaign. Maybe it's because it's me sticking out like a sore thumb against a ppc backdrop consisting of nearly every major environmental group, but I actually think it's because it's still rare for searchers to see individuals running ppc campaigns.

I'm still wishing & hoping that the search engines realize what a great opportunity they have to a)contribute to democracy by facilitating citizens' use of paid search; and b)educate the untapped consumer market about the opportunities for them to get involved in search not just as searchers but as buyers.

I'll say this - in 5-10 years' time we'll look back and wonder why it was only people selling something who bought PPC ads.