Tales from the Trail

Most American voters now know Mitt Romney and some also know Tagg Romney, the presidential candidate’s oldest son. But how about Clegg Romney, Tuff Romney and Fridge Romney?

Chicago-based comedian and freelance writer Daniel Kibblesmith and his friend, webmaster John Holdun, have created the “Romney Family Name Generator” website, romneyfamilynamegenerator.com. Visitors can click through to see a variety of fictional Romney family and staff, such as “Girth Romney,” Mitt’s daughter, and “Fizz Romney,” Mitt’s live-in gardener.

The kicker? The sparse-looking site contains a pop-up advertisement from “Romney for President, Inc,” inviting visitors to click through to make a donation to the Romney campaign and make Barack Obama a “one-term president.”

“The ads are generated by Google keywords, so we suspected that Romney ads would appear almost immediately, a notion we found delightful,” Kibblesmith said. “We tried to make the names sound as chunky as ‘Mitt’ and ‘Tagg’ so people wouldn’t assume they were generated by computer (no computer is that dumb).”

“We’d probably get more profitable click-throughs if we figured out how to make them Obama ads, but we’ve been too lazy,” Kibblesmith said, who blogs at kibblesmith.com. “Overall, the site has earned us about two dollars, which we’re splitting.”

Photo credit: Mitt Romney speaks with his family standing behind him at his New Hampshire primary night rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, January 10, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Bourg