• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 6, 2010

Production company BermanBraun and the MSNBC Digital Network on Wednesday debuted a sexed-up political news hub dubbed BLTWY.com. "This new site feeds the growing appetite for lifestyle news about the political arena," said Charlie Tillinghast, president of the MSNBC Digital Network.

In line with BermanBraun's immodest digital design style, BLTWY.com features large visuals and the ability to navigate through a wall of photos.

Indeed, BLTWY is being positioned as an extension of entertainment and celebrity destination Wonderwall -- which BermanBraun and the MSNBC Digital Network debuted in 2009 -- and attempts to leverage the same punchy voice and presentation.

"The world of politics is a natural extension of the Wonderwall brand we have built with MSN," BermanBraun partners Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun said in a joint statement.

Visitors to BLTWY.com can scroll through the site and find the latest on what political players are eating, wearing and what they do in their free time. Via photo galleries, stories and videos, BLTWY hopes to offer the general public an entertaining take on the world of politics.

The site was specifically designed to appeal to the 25- to-49-year-old audience, and features original content from a dedicated editorial team, from the MSNBC Digital Network of sites, and a select group of third-party partners.

Additional features include interactive polling on all content, and integration of social media.

Still, the partners are hardly the first to take an interest in the political sphere.

Along with The Huffington Post and Politico, AOL recently debuted an online destination for campaigns, advocacy groups, and companies interested in targeting constituencies online. The AOL Advertising Politics hub connects to Ad Desk for Politics and Display University, both of which were designed by AOL to educate and enable political marketers to more easily purchase display advertising.

Also, The Washington Post recently unveiled its answer to Politico with PostPolitics.com, which is led by Chris Cillizza, who writes the paper's The Fix blog, and aggregates political stories and blog posts from across the Post newsroom.

Earlier this year, a Supreme Court ruling lifted restrictions on political ad spending from corporations, so companies can now join campaign and issue advocacy groups in influencing voters online.

Meanwhile, the presidential race of 2008 as well as the 2009 Scott Brown race in Massachusetts clearly showed the impact that spending online can have on a campaign's outcome.

In August, Starcom MediaVest announced a deal with BermanBraun to spend north of $100 million in advertising across a slew of entertainment sites.

Starcom, which is part of the Publicis Groupe, represents some of the world's foremost advertisers, including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Wal-Mart.

The deal is expected to include multiple BermanBraun properties, including Wonderwall.com and health and beauty site Glo.com.