In Tennessee Senate race, anonymous Google ads skirt rules to alter headlines

Joey Garrison | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Will Phil Bredesen or Marsha Blackburn succeed Bob Corker in the Senate? Phil Bredesen and Marsha Blackburn are the leading candidates to replace Bob Corker in the U.S. Senate

Take a hard look at the headlines that pop up the next time you Google search Tennessee's U.S. Senate race.

What you see might not be a real headline at all.

The closely watched election has had a pair of anonymous digital ads surface — that at first appear to be the headlines of news stories — targeting Democrat Phil Bredesen when his name is searched on Google.

The ads link to stories published by the Tennessean, but they display altered headlines on the Google results page, giving the impression the articles say something they don't. The URLs visible in the search results are altered as well to match the manipulated headline.

The links are identified as ads, but who paid for it is not disclosed.

A separate but similarly formatted anonymous Google ad has promoted Republican nominee Marsha Blackburn. There's also one that seeks to boost Bredesen.

Blackburn's campaign denied paying for the ads that target Bredesen or having any knowledge of who did.

Multiple GOP-aligned organizations said they weren't behind the ads, either. The Tennessee Republican Party neither confirmed nor denied involvement, citing their policy to not discuss their digital strategy.

Complete coverage: Tennessee's campaign for US Senate

Why these ads are different than other Google ads

The use of Google ads to subtly twist the message shows how political groups are able to skirt around Google's rules aimed at transparency for political advertising. It's part of a new digital frontier in modern-day campaigns.

One of the Google ads at issue has the headline, "Trump Voters Idiots According | To Top Bredesen Spokesman."

Nothing looks unusual at first.

But that's not the actual headline of the article — nor was the story about a Bredesen spokesman.

It links to a Tennessean story, "Tennessee Democratic operative under fire for past explicit tweets about Trump, supporters."

The URL visible in the search results is altered as well from The Tennessean's version to say, www.tennessean.com/BredesenInsults/Trumpvoters. The URL is no longer live.

The story that's linked involves Mark Brown, a communications aide for the Tennessee Democratic Party, who Republicans have blasted over explicit tweets he made in 2016 and 2017 about Trump.

Twitter storm: Tennessee Democratic operative under fire for past explicit tweets about Trump, supporters

Blackburn's campaign has increasingly highlighted the comments as Bredesen, former governor of Tennessee, seeks to earn Republican support in a state Trump carried overwhelmingly in 2016.

How the ads are allowed under Google rules

The ad underscores the different rules applied to digital advertising as opposed to traditional forms such as television, radio and mail that campaigns have used for years.

Under Google's guidelines, election advertising must include a "paid for by" disclosure next to them.

None of the ads at issue have that that disclosure, nor are they required.

Why not?

They aren't considered political ads because they link to a news website, The Tennessean, as opposed to a website promoting a candidate or campaign.

Google's disclosure policy does not apply to "ads for products or services, including promotional political merchandise like t-shirts or mugs, or news coverage of federal election campaigns, candidates, or current elected federal officeholders."

Google did not answer questions asked by The Tennessean about the company's ad policies by publication of this story.

A similarly formatted anonymous Google ad this year had the headline, "Phil Bredesen | Hand-picked by Chuck Schumer.”

It links to a Tennessean story with a headline, "Phil Bredesen 'courted personally' by Schumer, top Democrats to run for Senate, report says."

Headlines for Google results pages must be written with fewer characters than the headlines of the story. But that doesn't explain the different choice of words.

Senate campaign: Phil Bredesen 'courted personally' by Schumer, top Democrats to run for Senate, report says

On the campaign trail, Blackburn has sought to remind voters of the pivotal role the Tennessee race could have in deciding control of the Senate. While Bredesen has cast himself as an independent, Blackburn has argued he would help advance Schumer's Democratic agenda.

Google ads alter headlines to boost candidates as well

Conversely, the same Google ad strategy has been used to promote Blackburn's candidacy, not just attack Bredesen.

A Google search of Marsha Blackburn pops up a headline, "Blackburn earns endorsement | of Pro Business US Chamber."

The ad links to The Tennessean story, "U.S Chamber of Commerce endorses Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee U.S. Senate race." The altered URL in the search results: www.tennessean.com/BlackburnEarns/HugeEndorsement.

Chamber support: U.S Chamber of Commerce endorses Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee U.S. Senate race

Meanwhile, another anonymous Google ad puts a positive spin on a link to a Tennessean story about Bredesen's rural broadband policy.

The headline displayed on the Google search page: "Fix it Phil Bredesen | A plan to fix rural broadband | tennessean.com."

Neither the pro-Blackburn nor pro-Bredesen ads reveal who paid for them.

Bredesen campaign slams 'shady money' in the race

In a statement, Blackburn campaign spokeswoman Abbi Sigler, said, "We’re running positive google search ads around our candidate’s name.”

Sigler said neither the Blackburn campaign nor the Blackburn Tennessee Victory Fund paid for the ads that link to Tennessean articles. The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee, along with the state Republican Party, also denied involvement.

The Bredesen campaign said they aren't behind the anonymous Google ad promoting their candidate.

They also blamed the Blackburn campaign for the ads aimed at Bredesen, saying it's "no surprise that shady money is propping up dishonest campaigns like Marsha Blackburn’s.

"We know the swamp is hard at work creating fake news, because they don't want Gov. Bredesen's common-sense leadership to clean up their mess in Washington," Bredesen communications director Laura Zapata said, calling the ads the "kind of stuff that voters hate about Washington."

Google ads that do require disclosures

Both campaigns have paid for traditional Google election advertising where they've been required to say who paid for the ads. This includes videos that pop up on google searches.

For example, the top result that appears on a current search for "Phil Bredesen" are the words, "Phil Bredesen for U.S. Senate | Working for Tennesseans." It links to a campaign-affiliated website, and therefore the disclosure is required.

Blackburn has a similar ad that's the top result of a Google search that also discloses her campaign paid for it.

According to Google, the Bredesen campaign, through Bredesen for Senate, has purchased 82 Google ads totaling $95,700 so far during the campaign.

That's three times the $31,700 that the Blackburn campaign, identified as Marsha for Senate, has spent on 49 ads.

As part of Google's transparency page, the company displays every ad considered an election ad that the Blackburn and Bredesen campaigns have bought.

The top Google ad purchaser this cycle has been Trump's election campaign, which has spent $629,500.

Other notable campaign committees include the Koch brothers-backed Americans For Prosperity, which has spent $149,700 on Google ads, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has spent $144,400 on Google ads, and the GOP-led Senate Leadership Fund, which has spent $96,700 on Google ads.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8226, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.