http://www.hollywood-newsroom.com/gossip/john-mccain-owns-voteforthemilfcom/ John McCain owns voteforthemilf.com had it up and running shortly after palin was announced as his running mate
Someone in McCain's campaign is amazingly good, anticipating all the hateful stuff people would say about her and domains people would register to bash her with.
That's one way to put it. Not sure how many people would have registered voteforthemilf, however. Is voteforcariboubarbie taken? voteforyournextdoorneighbor? voteforsomeonecompletelyrandom? voteforlikewhoever? voteforthesportsgirlonthelocaltv? voteforsomeonetokeepthecomediansbusyafterbushisoutofoffice? barfo Edit: it seems to be a bug that there is a space between out and of in the last line. There is not a space in what I typed.
None of those taken, I think. I checked the first few. The MILF one was registered 36 hours after she was announced as VP nominee. Within 36 hours, the MILF buzz was all over the internet, so this domain was a pretty obvious one to register. The idea of registering it in the first place is astute.
Why is it astute? Is it that they thought Palin fans would be drawn to a site named voteforthemilf? Or is it that they worried that their enemies would capture the high ground of voteforthemilf.com? Certainly it does say something about the campaign that they registered voteforthemilf.com. barfo
Within the first 36 hours, DailyKOS had published a story that Palin's last child was really her daughter's. The smear campaign against her was in gear right away. google "palin milf" and you get: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,140,000 for palin milf It almost makes me want to vote for her just because of the people who'd do that kind of thing to her. Almost. Mook is an internet entrepreneur, maybe he can vouch for how people register all kinds of domains for marketing and guerrilla marketing purposes. It's done all the time, and the people who do it are doing a smart thing.
And that has what to do with her being (or not) a milf? I'd venture that some of them are doing a smart thing, and some of them are wasting their $20. You could register s2sucksbigreddonkeydicks.com, but I'm not sure what actual good it would do. barfo
It is a smart move by the campaign/RNC to react to this kind of contemptible kind of smear campaign. People have been working pretty hard to make over 1M web pages and sites calling her a MILF. You'd google first, not register random things for the hell of it.
And this smart move combats that how, exactly? If I'm googling "palin milf", and I find voteforthemilf.com, and go to it, do I become a McCain voter? Or do I maybe do another search for "palin naked"? Really? So voteforthemilf was a top google hit? barfo
Read uct's article. How many people ended up seeing a McCain ad? Spending $10 on the domain name and a simple redirect got them a lot of views of their ad for a fraction of the cost of buying TV ad time.
Yes, assuming that you think the crowd going for voteforthemilf is a group that will be receptive to a McCain campaign ad. I followed the link, saw the ad. Didn't convince me. They'd get even more views if they registered sarahpalinnaked.com, I'd bet. Or even johnmccainnaked.com, there is no underestimating the perversity of the internet surfer. In fact I'd bet that tomorrow there are a whole bunch of hits on this message because it is the top ranked page for "john mccain naked". barfo
You don't register these types of domains with the intent of developing them into web pages, you do it simply to prevent your enemies from developing them into webpages. I'm certainly no Palin or McCain supporter and I utterly fail to see the controversy.
Not every ad is meant to appeal to the best in our human nature. There are probably some fratboys out there who have thought to themselves, "I'm votin' for geezer dude cuz Palin's a lot hotter than Biden." Registering domains like that could sway a few, I suppose. Both of these campaigns have millions of dollars tied up in online advertising. (Well, Obama clearly does. the guy is everywhere.) You could register the 100 most prurient domains and point them to your official campaign site, and the overall budget for the project would wind up in the "Misc" category next to beer coasters at the Republican convention. So if it costs practically nothing and it sways even a few thousand Americans (who, btw, are assholes), why not? My guess is the discussion it generates on message boards like this make it worth while.
It's a defensive maneuver. I'd be willing to bet that Coca Cola owns domain names along the lines of "cokesucks.com." They're not going to use them they're just going to keep other people from using. I'd also be willing to bet that the Obama campaign owns more than one negative domain name.
Really, I think you're short-changing their campaign's achievements. That they kept it so close for so long is a real achievement, given all the disadvantages they've had. They pulled off a great convention, they've run really smart, slimy negative ads that often defined the agenda for both campaigns, and they overhauled a presidential bid that was left for dead last summer. I don't think it's the campaign's fault that McCain decided to blunder so badly into the economic news last week. And I suspect Palin was McCain's personal choice. And even if it weren't, it was a risky move they had to take to get some kind of momentum. McCain's campaign hasn't been like Hillary's, where you had bad organization, bad forecasting, waffling messages from day to day, and a spouse constantly sabotaging you. It's failing because the Republican brand just sucks right now. That Palin is choking so badly isn't helping, too. But it's hard to blame either problem at the feet of McCain's campaign staff.
I'm not sure why this is important to discuss. I'd bet you top dollar that Obama owns several domains that are derisive towards Obama and/or Biden. It's smart to do so. Just like there was a time when the Blazers owned several website domains that had a "jail blazer" type theme to them. Or at least, I think they did.
The day after Palin was named, the Wikipedia article about her included the link http://vpilf.com , which also seems to be owned by the campaign. I mentioned this in a few places online and in real life, and ended up having to explain what 'milf' stands for to several co-workers and message boards. I guess it's not as widely known as I thought it was. -- Rob Allen
