IAR: Study: Internet Ripe for Political Advertising

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) and University of Connecticut's Center for Survey and Research Analysis conducted a survey showing two thirds of voters will likely turn to the Internet to research political candidates.

This year seems to mark the point where online political ads turned the corner from novelty to necessary. Many campaigns are beginning to think of planned online ad budgets, rather than the previously-seen opportunistic and occasional purchases.

However, the OPA study does smack of early Internet studies where respondents indicated they would use the Internet for all sorts of high-minded and self-edifying purposes, rather than playing rotisserie football and looking for pornography. This next election cycle should give us the confirming or contradicting indications we need in order to figure out how seriously to take this sort of research.