It’s a campaign ad you have to see to believe. GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina electrified the California GOP state convention this past weekend with an Oprah-style conversational speech that was preceded by the latest in a series of quirky ads from Hollywood consultant Fred Davis.
Mr. Davis is famous for John McCain’s "celebrity" attack ad on Barack Obama and a previous Fiorina ad portraying her Republican Senate opponent Tom Campbell as a "demon sheep." But Mr. Davis has now outdone himself in the bizarre metaphor department with an eight-minute Internet ad attacking Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer entitled "Hot Air — The Movie."
The ad is chock full of delicious symbolism. You can find it at failedsenator.com. It portrays the 69-year-old Ms. Boxer as an incumbent whose ego and elitism are so expansive that she bursts through the Capitol Dome as a giant blimp outfitted with TV screens that spout rhetoric supporting higher taxes and calling climate change a "national security" issue. The ad portrays Ms. Fiorina as a successful problem solver and the only Republican who can deflate the "Hindenboxer."
California’s media markets are prohibitively expensive, making it hard for state-wide candidates to begin getting their message out this early in an Election Year. Mr. Davis’s over-the-top web ads are designed to generate oodles of free media coverage and create unflattering images of his targets that are bound to stick in the minds of voters. Hiring a "mad genius" ad man was a gamble on Ms. Fiorina’s part, but one that seems to be paying dividends.
— John Fund
Great stuff!