John Kerry, meet citizen Welch (and a few of his friends)

LA journalist and Reason editor Matt Welch got an ad from John Kerry over the weekend. While and [url=]Josh Marshall used the occassion of their first candidate ads to
discuss the merits of taking such ads, Matt dives right into critiquing Kerry.

Matt gives Kerry bonus points for enabling comments on his site, but quibbles with Kerry’s “interventionist approach to the economy.” He continues, “my choice for 2004 will almost surely be based entirely on foreign policy concerns (though free trade, to me, is near the top of my foreign policy agenda). So if I have time, we’ll discuss that next.”

What does Kerry get out of advertising on blogs that he doesn’t get from advertising in other media?

a) Cost-effective clicks. Remember bloggers have no overheads and haven’t priced their rate cards to fund executive jacuzzis. Buying 5 million page impressions on blogs costs <$3000, while the same quantity of impressions costs $90,000-$150,000 on TNR, NYTimes.com and Washingtonpost.com.

b) Attention from folks who actually care about politics. As of 8AM Sunday EST, Matt’s post has 10 comments. While many are flip, the comments indicate engagement and slide towards serious debate. Matt responds to one by saying “it strikes me at minimum as peculiar that certain supporters of the war-dodger-in-chief keep banging away at Kerry for talking up his military service. ” Compare this engagement with the impact of a typical television ad which often emerges while no one is in the room (remember half of America has the television on nonstop), then disappears into the ether, next to be heard by some Klingon spies 175 light years from earth.

You can see Kerry ads on Soundbitten,Matt Welch, NYCeats, Amy Langfield, Atrios, Political Wire, Talkingpointsmemo, and Blogshares… with more to come!

By the way, if you click the “more” link, you’ll see a great article done about Blogads by marketing guru Ken Magill in the NYSun.