Paris helps McCain (in web traffic)

Ads comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton helped boost web traffic for John McCain, according to a new report from the Nielsen Company. The number of videos viewed on McCain's website more than doubled between June and July, from 377,000 in June to just over 1 million in July, when the Paris Hilton ad appeared. But while Obama's websitte lagged in total streams, it still drew more than twice the unique viewers McCain's did in June and July: more than 3 million viewers for Obama each month, compared to about 1.5 million in July.

Among the other tidbits in the Nielsen report:

* Obama vastly increased his image-based online ad campaign in July.
* Both McCain and Obama did most of their June and July TV advertising in the battleground
states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Obama also ran a lot of ads in Florida, while McCain concentrated on Iowa.
* Between June and August 17, Obama led McCain in "buzz" on blogs and message boards.
* Historically, more homes have tuned into the Democratic National Convention than to the Republican National Convention. The exceptions: 1972 (Richard Nixon), 1976 (Gerald Ford) and 2004 (George W. Bush).