Google AdWords being used as a political tool

I’m always impressed at the new and innovative ways that people use technology. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. Sometimes it’s efficient, but sometimes it’s overcomplicated.

More and more, you’re starting to see activists buying up searches of company names in order to interfere with the corporations’ business activities. With such low prices, it can be an attractive way to place yourself between a company and it’s online customers.

I’m not sure about the legal ramifications, but this seems to be some uncharted territory that could potentially cause a lot of damage before the law steps in and sets some clear ground rules.

A prime example of this is the recent labor dispute between Marks & Spencer, and the Unite labor union.

Britain’s biggest union, Unite, has launched a “virtual” assault (cyber sabotage – cybertage anyone?) on Marks and Spencer, to highlight what it says is exploitation of agency staff.

Unite says it placed an ad with Google so anyone searching for the term ‘Marks and Spencer’ today would be confronted by a message urging them to “look behind the label”. The stunt was being carried out in addition to its conventional campaign against the high street chain.

I just recently did a search, and the ad doesn’t seem to be running here in Canada. I also tried an anonymizer service and was unable to see the offending ads.

Next time you hear about a local labor dispute, load up Google and check the ads. I think this’ll be a new recurring trend.