Corbis has launched a microsite to provide images and footage to ad agencies, campaigns and news outlets during the 2008 U.S. elections. The company pegs related ad spending as exceeding $3 billion, or nearly double that of the last presidential race. The two areas of significant spending increases are anticipated on the Web and in newspapers.

The political microsite will license both rights-managed and royalty-free products. These will be matched to breaking news, campaign issues and events, including debates and primaries. The site will be regularly updated with content and trends-related information compiled by Corbis' in-house creative research team.

Corbis' researchers predict that issue-based ads will dominate this election cycle, with campaigns focusing on environmental, healthcare and security issues. Fueling the anticipated rise of such advertising is the recent Supreme Court decision that removes some political-ad restrictions.