BBH and Steve Harty keywords bought up at Google by SEO guru making a point.

Adfreak has a story on BBH's keywords being bought up by an SEO firm (which reminds me, just a little of Asa Baileys OgilvyHijack a few years back) - they explain:

Bartle Bogle Hegarty chairman Steve Harty dismissed the usefulness of paid search for an agency like BBH, saying, “We have a more targeted strategy than, ‘We’re open for business.’ Search is kind of indiscriminate in a way.” Reprise Media doesn’t agree, and it’s out to prove a point. It has purchased the Google keywords “BBH” and “Steve Harty,” which bring up ads that direct to a Reprise blog post laying out how dumb it is for agencies to downplay search. Copy for the BBH ad reads: “Looking for an Agency? Not Buying Their Own Branded Terms! Can You Trust Them to Manage Yours?”

While googling BBH I do find BBH on the top spot there - but no text ads? - and if you search for BBH here at Adland, you'll find that nearly every post mentioning BBH has a link to BBH in it. (How's that for poisoning the well? BBH should pay me for that google-juice!).

If you search google for Steve Harty, you'll find the search marketing post explaining that they bought those keywords in the coveted top spot (right now that is) instead.

No word yet on what the real Steve Harty thinks of this little stunt riding on his name.