A “shampaign” (sham + campaign) is a fake campaign where a political candidate is running for office, but doesn’t seriously have a chance of winning. There are many reasons to run a “shampaign”—to publicize a book or a television show or a website, or to split the vote so that another candidate wins.
 
The word “shampaign” (it’s spoken like the word “champagne”) has been cited in print since at least 2004. A similar term is “scampaign” (scam + campaign).
 
     
The Guardian (UK)
Shampaign moments
Wednesday 18 February 2004 12.46 GMT
Remember when John Kerry shook hands with Stalin, or when George Bush walked on the moon? Neither do they. Democratic presidential hopeful Kerry has already seen a glimpse of a parallel life with the faked photograph that appeared on the internet and in British newspapers, showing him sharing a podium with Jane Fonda, who was a mere two years away. Now you can also hit the “shampaign trail” by sending in your own mock-ups of the likely presidential candidates.
     
The Dubya Report
The Giuliani Shampaign
Submitted by The Dubya Report on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 23:00
The image of Giuliani broadcast around the world, striding purposefully up a New York City street on 9/11, speaking with apparent calm to the news media, is nearly the entire Giuliani campaign. But as some pollsters have suggested that Giuliani’s support is following a similar downward trend to that of McCain, the Romney campaign has begun to claim front-runner status among primary voters, and a firefighters union and family members of 9/11 victims have reminded the public that in the famous video footage, Rudy was running away
 
Pigs Don’t Fly
09 November 2007
Sparkling Shampaign
I always wondered if someone ever specifically sat down just to develop new words for the English vernacular. For example the marketing word prosumer, can it be tracked back to the person who first used it?
 
Well here I give you the first ever use of the word…
 
shampaign
n. sham·paign
a campaign where the brand or product remains unknown until later revealed through subsequent marketing
 
The word shampaign is a portmanteau of the words sham and cacampaign. An online dictionary defines the word sham as “something false or empty that is purported to be genuine” and “one who assumes a false character” which I believe is somewhat appropriate and allows for a good play on words.
     
Independent Political Report
George Phillies: ‘Barr – the Shampaign’
December 22nd, 2008 · 83 Comments
Emailed by George Phillies to “undisclosed recipients”
 
Is there a campaign here?
 
Mega Stream
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
SHAMpaign: The ‘Paycheck Politics’ of Conservative Political Campaigns
(Video from MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” of August 19, 2011—ed.)