Turkey opposition launches Google ads campaign to target Erdogan

AFP  |  Istanbul 

Turkey's nationalist opposition Iyi Parti (Good Party) has launched a advertisement campaign with mischievous slogans targeting Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ahead of June 24 polls.

searches of certain keywords lead to humourous messages redirecting them to the site of Iyi Parti.

A search for the ruling returns a top result which leads to the message: "Now there's an even better one" a play on words associated with the Iyi Parti's name.

The campaign also targets Erdogan's hugely controversial palace in the capital Ankara, which it describes as a "1,150 room bargain palace".

A search for "empty rooms" leads to Aksener's campaign promise to open the vast palace to the public.

A search for "VPN" brings them to Iyi Parti's website with the slogan "Don't waste your money. For internet freedoms, wait until we come to power." Many Turkish use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), sometimes paying for the service, to get around blocks on certain websites in such as Wikipedia.

Typing "dream interpretation" throws up a link which asks: "are you having nightmares?".

Google AdWords is Google's in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their ads to appear in the results. Aksener's election speeches are rarely broadcast on the as well as on the state run TRT television.

The AKP is also very active on social media, networks with critics accusing the party of recruiting "trolls" to give Erdogan's opponents a tough time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, June 06 2018. 02:35 IST