Often overshadowed by LBJ’s infamous “Daisy” ad, “Confessions of a Republican” is great mostly because it’s so weird. It’s also really long—four minutes and change. I haven’t been able to figure out when exactly it aired, or how really, because four-minute ad breaks aren’t particularly common even now (and TV commercial breaks have stretched drastically in recent years). In the ad, an actor (although the ad doesn’t say as much) talks about how he’s always been a Republican, but the party’s candidate that year, Sen. Goldwater, is too extreme for his comfort. Sure, this is mostly an artifact of the era during which party...
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Hell Bent for Election
So this is friggin’ cool. Above is an animated film directed by Chuck Jones that was basically a union-sponsored campaign ad for FDR. From the YouTube description: Hell-Bent For Election was a 1944 two-reel (thirteen minute) animated cartoon short subject now in the public domain. The short was one of the first major films from United Productions of America (then known as “Industrial Films”), which would go on to become the most influential animation studio of the 1950s. As UPA did not have a full staff or a studio location until the late-1940s, this film was made...
Continue reading...Michigan Senate candidate hits other Senate candidate with ties to loan Sharknado or something
In this weird and kind-of awful ad, Michigan Republican Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land accuses Democratic Senate candidate Gary Peters for having ties to a loan shark. With Sharknado, because that’s not over.
Continue reading...We’re only 65% sure that Rep. Vance MacAllister’s wife is not being held hostage hashtag blessed
First, I want you to look at this: [there used to be an image here, but it has been eaten by internet rot] That’s U.S. soccer superstar Landon Donovan while appearing on ESPN during this summer’s World Cup. That’s also the face of a man that we’re pretty sure is being held hostage and is reading his captors’ demands. Now, we have another super creepy and weird political ad today (earlier). This one is from Louisiana Representative Vance MacAllister, who really, really wants to remind you that he and his wife a super-duper Christians hashtag blessed. You...
Continue reading...Weird and creepy political ad is weird and creepy
Here’s a new gem for the archives in the annals of weird-ass political ads. In this one, titled “Dating Profile,” from Americans for Shared Prosperity (some Californian rich guy’s Super PAC) a sad love-worn woman is mad about her boyfriend president. Because the reason women voted for “Barack” was because they were “in love,” because he was “smart, handsome, charming articulate, all the right values.” Weird, though, because she knows she’s stuck with him for two more years (this analogy sure is holding up well), but she know she doesn’t have to hang out with his friends or something...
Continue reading...Candidate for Congress Don Oehlrich wants to change Congress’s diaper
Businessman Don Oehlrich is running for Congress in Florida’s seventh district, currently held by Republican Rep. John Mica. In the above ad, he makes the “clever” analogy between congressmen and diapers: when they’re fresh, they work well, etc. You know where that’s going. Florida’s congressional primary is August 26.
Continue reading...Most honest campaign ad of all time is also a fake ad
Gil Fulbright is not running for Senate. Gil Fulbright is not from Kentucky. Gil Fulbright is not a real person. He’s the creation of a political group called “Represent Us,” which aims to bring attention to the post-Citizens United atmosphere of legalized bribery and corruption.
Continue reading...Alabama Republican candidate for Senate Will Brooke shoots ACA, completely rips off Sen. Manchin
A second quality advertisement today comes from Will Brooke, who is running in Alabama for the Republican nomination for the Senate race. Invoking the Second Amendment, he gets in his truck, taking a print-out of the Affordable Care act with him out to where he can shoot it with a handgun, a rifle, and finally in super-dramatic-slow-mo an assault rifle (that music!), before eventually putting the whole deal through a Will-Brooke-branded shredder. However, this is such a rip-off of Sen. Joe Manchin’s campaign ad from 2010:
Continue reading...Christine O'Donnell "not a witch"
In her new 30-second spot, Delaware Republican nominee Christine O’Donnell—who claims to have “dabbled in witchcraft“—begins by making it quite clear that she is not, in fact, a witch. But, with that black top, dark backdrop, and pale skin, it might be fair to say “She look like one?”
Continue reading...Great Moments in Campaign Advertising: Morning in America
“Prouder/Faster/Stronger” A Reagan/Bush ad from 1984 featuring the famous tag-line “It’s morning in America,” was one of the—if not the—most effective campaign advertisements in U.S. history. A simple message—things are better now than they were four years ago, so why change?—yet, thematically very interesting. “Morning” both symbolizes the disappearance of the dark age of the 1970s, as well as the very real and non-symbolic message of people going to work. IMDBish fun fact of the day: The ad was directed by John Pytka, whose brother Joe Pytka directed “Space Jam.” Text: It’s morning again in America. Today...
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