What do Ron Paul and Hannah Montana have in Common?

Looking at Google's year-end Zeitgeist, it's seems evident that both are memes whose relative popularity online eclipses what it is off.

Ron Paul is far and away, the most searched-for Presidential candidate surpassing even Fred Thompson, Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton.

"Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, told Forbes.com that Ron Paul's popularity was surprising, but his online campaign 'shows what an effective tool the Internet is. He's not nearly as covered [in MSM] as Clinton or Obama, but he has marketed himself online. He's using the Internet to his advantage.'"

Over in showbiz, Disney TV/Pop star, Hannah Montana (Mylie Cyrus) and her bubblegum-music Tour are more searched for than that of the most popular rock band in the world (just off of the highest grossing tour in history, ever), The Rolling Stones.



While delving into the disparity between popularity online vs. offline was outside the purview of the Forbes article, in the case of Paul, Infowars calls it a blacklisting by the mainstream media. (No surprise coming from the ever-conspiratorial InfoWars)

I think it has more to do with Paul's consistent, but stridently Libertarian leanings. His anti-war message, really resonates with a lot of people, but so many of his other views are simply way too far out of the mainstream for him to get real traction there.

Howard Dean and Ned Lamont's losses showed that having a huge "net roots" presence simply isn't enough. You need MSM mind share too. While nowhere near as huge as The Rolling Stones, Hannah at least has more mainstream media exposure than Dr. Paul. But she's a kid's TV star...He's a presidential candidate.

Ultimately, both their online popularity (as measured by google) seems disproportionate to their relative popularity offline.


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