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April 07, 2005
Google ad puts Eliot Spitzer on the hot seat
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday stopped running a political ad that ran on Google when web surfers typed in the acronym for American International Group Inc.
Spitzer, who has been in the spot light recently for an extensive probe into the insurance industry, is receiving some bad press after web surfers who typed in the key word "AIG" were delivered a search ad at the top right of the results page that read "Spitzer for NY Governor."
Though there is no law that prohibits this act, it has been conteseted in court by GEICO back in December of 2004.
Spitzer and the SEC have been investigating the insurance giant's accounting practices, especially regarding reinsurance deals. Even though no laws were broken, the lack of etiquette was enough to bring bad press to the Spitzer campaign.
"It wasn't appropriate and as soon as Mr. Spitzer found out about it, he had it removed it as soon as possible," said Darren Dopp, a spokesman for the NY attorney general, in an interview with Reuters. Dopp later said that a low level staffer of the Spitzer campaign group coordinated the ad.
Posted by Tom Troceen