Campaign for the neologism "santorum"
The campaign for the neologism "santorum" started with a contest held in May 2003 by Dan Savage, a sex columnist and LGBTQ rights activist.
"[3] Savage announced the winning entry, which defined "santorum" as "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."
[4] In 2010, Savage said he would take the site down if Santorum donated US$5 million plus interest to Freedom to Marry, a group advocating legal recognition of same-sex marriages.
[6] In an interview with the Associated Press on April 7, 2003, Santorum said there is a relationship between the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal and liberalism and relativism.
[9] A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee described Santorum's views as "divisive and reckless",[10] while conservative activists saw them as a "principled opposition to same-sex marriage".
[9] On April 25, 2003, in a New York Times op-ed, Savage responded to Santorum's comments, arguing that the remarks amounted to an overt Republican appeal to homophobic voters.
[15] On June 12 he announced the winner as "that frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex".
[9][16] Savage set up a website, spreadingsantorum.com, to spread awareness of the term;[9] the site features the definition over a brown splattered stain on an otherwise-white page.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in July 2006 that the site appeared at the top of a Google search for Santorum's name.
"[17] Savage offered in May 2010 to remove the site if Santorum donated $5 million to Freedom to Marry, an advocacy group for same-sex marriage.
[18] As of January 2012[update], the sexual term was still the top result for Santorum's name on several search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
[30] Google Current reported in 2006 that the word had inspired punk rock and blues songs;[31] Philadelphia Weekly columnist Liz Spikol wrote that it had begun appearing on bumper stickers and T-shirts.
[17] Jon Stewart mentioned it on The Daily Show more than once; his reference to it in May 2011 caused the word to be one of the most queried search terms on Google the following day.
[35] Stephanie Mencimer wrote in Mother Jones in 2010 that "some observers even suggested [the neologism] may have contributed to Santorum’s crushing 18-point defeat in his 2006 campaign against Bob Casey.
A commentary in The Globe and Mail suggested a difficulty in avoiding double entendres when writing about Santorum because of Savage's campaign.
"[41] The New York Times reported in 2004 that people had tried to use Google bombs to link the names of several American politicians, including George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rick Santorum, to what it called "unprintable phrases".
"[43] When asked in June 2011 whether Google should step in to prevent the definition appearing so prominently under searches for his name, Santorum said they should intervene only if they would normally do so in this kind of circumstance.
