Comment Re:Hmmm (Score 1) 1153
If we're talking about text and contextual ads, then I'd say that's just fine.
Why? Because of the nature of this method of advertising, which is inherently more balanced than anything on TV. If you search for "Sicko" and see the #1 ranked page, a huge majority of the time you'll choose to navigate to THAT page, or one of the other top few pages, and not a sponsored ad. You're looking for information, the best information, and you want to locate it by relevance to your search terms.
Unlike the insidious -- in fact, utterly sickening -- nature of modern PR, currently nothing that google offers to advertisers can compromise this dynamic.
However, if these companies want to make their side of the story available, well, there are sponsored results. They can always make their side of things just a click away, if they pay for it. But they can't interfere with people informing themselves, at least, not through Adsense/Adwords. Contrast this with traditional mediums, where they can not simply interfere, but can absolutely dominate the discussion.
And this holds just as true for a tobacco company as an HMO.
Why? Because of the nature of this method of advertising, which is inherently more balanced than anything on TV. If you search for "Sicko" and see the #1 ranked page, a huge majority of the time you'll choose to navigate to THAT page, or one of the other top few pages, and not a sponsored ad. You're looking for information, the best information, and you want to locate it by relevance to your search terms.
Unlike the insidious -- in fact, utterly sickening -- nature of modern PR, currently nothing that google offers to advertisers can compromise this dynamic.
However, if these companies want to make their side of the story available, well, there are sponsored results. They can always make their side of things just a click away, if they pay for it. But they can't interfere with people informing themselves, at least, not through Adsense/Adwords. Contrast this with traditional mediums, where they can not simply interfere, but can absolutely dominate the discussion.
And this holds just as true for a tobacco company as an HMO.
