portland independent media center  
images audio video
newswire article portland metro

Online Awareness Concept: AdWords for Peace?

A 'money is speech' option to raise public awareness.
Okay, this is an idea that hit me this morning, after purchasing an AdWords account for other reasons. Google.com, the popular search engine, lets you run ads targeted at particular searches for a single $5 fee and $0.05 a click, visible to all users except Japan (which, for unknown reasons, requires $0.40/click). That's *per-click,* so a message can be quite visible for no cost. I'm not just trying to shill for Google here, and I'd actually practice what I preach were I not 1. pretty broke and 2. not in a position to deal with potential repercussions/angry letters/FBI file-creation right now.

Concepts include linking gas mask suppliers, Black Cross, or portland.indymedia.com itself to searches for "Portland" / "Portland Oregon" / "Portland OR," ...or "War is PEACE. Freedom is SLAVERY. Ignorance is STRENGTH.  http://www.darpa.mil/iao/" to searches for "Privacy," etc. If you're okay with your message appearing every 5th hit or so, until it's accumulated 10 clicks for the day ($0.50 limit), you can sponsor a week's barrage for $10...

Hope this option comes in handy to those trying to get the word out; the idea would be to raise awareness on searches only tangentially related. Props go to the blogger at  http://www.magicweasel.net for the 1984 quote, and  http://www.iterature.com/adwords/ for the initial idea.