Organizations are constantly finding new ways of reaching their audiences using the Internet, and most especially e-mail.

However, with e-mail facing huge deliverability and credibility issues, the innovative and at the same time "deliverable" is becoming one of the more important aspects of e-mail marketing. And of course, you still need your own e-mail list to send out your marketing messages.

But what do you do if your list doesn't reach the people you want to reach, but you don't want to buy ad space in third party e-mail publications (probably because you either don't want to pay for ad space or because you need extra credibility to get delivered, opened and read)?

As Ad Age reports, a US political organization just found a solution to this problem, employing Fortune 100's to "deploy" their marketing message to their employees.

"ExxonMobil, PPG Industries, Caterpillar, Household International and half the Fortune 100 corporations have signed on with a program that pushes their
BIPAC's Web site explains that in the 2002 election 'more than half the Fortune 50 used BIPAC tools to educate employees about pro-business candidates and to get them to the polls."

"The Business Industry Political Action Committee's "Prosperity Project" program targets 20 million employees in battleground states."

Ad Age also confirms that employers are one of the most relevant and credible sources of information, which further proves my point above:

"A person's employer is the single most credible source of job-related information," Mr. Casey said, adding that "there is an affinity between working folks and their employer."

Mixing business and politics is nothing new, since politics naturally do effect business, and vica verca.

Also, using credible third-party endorsements to share your message via e-mail is nothing new as well. It's actually an important ingredient of Affiliate Marketing programs.

One does, however, ask him- or herself where this might lead in the future? It's no secret that powerful organizations have the power to influence politics. They are now using the internet to do this even easier ... But what does this mean for democracy?

The internet is a hugely democratic and on the other side a hugely elitist medium. It does seem that the "powers that be" have an advantage on this one as well. Will the scale tip towards the elitism?

Or is the power of free voice still strong enough (if it ever even was?)?