We all know how election times are. Certain topics take over the media. Conversations with some family members become more tense. But the one thing that bothered people the most this election season was the political ads. The false, offensive, pandering nature of these ads was bad enough in the first place–not to mention how oversaturated they were shown over and over again on every media platform possible. Even NFL fans took notice and made memes about the ads finally leaving their televisions on gameday once the election came to a close. These ridiculous, hyperbolic ads which attempted to sway the not-so-intelligent amongst us to one side by spewing obvious fabrications and exaggerations prove extremely representative of what makes the state of modern politics so frustrating.
It was bad on both sides. But I want to first talk about two specific Republican campaigns that seemed so over-the-top in nature that they feel satire, and genuinely make me laugh. The first is a political ad run by the Truth and Courage PAC, a committee whose main goal involves funding the re-election of current Texas senator Ted Cruz. The ad focused on the topic of transgender athletes, more specifically transgender women competing in women’s sports at the youth level. This is such a non-issue that’s been massively blown out of proportion via bigoted motivations in the first place, but that’s a whole other topic. The ad begins lighthearted, showing girls competing in sport, seemingly having fun, soon after though, the settings turn dark, literally. The music becomes threatening and the girls begin to appear scared. The ad then closes with a Colin Allred lookalike in pads Ed Reed-style trucking a little girl in a flag football game (I wish I was kidding). The funniest part about this is not the insane nature of the ad itself, but that it worked. Ted Cruz won re-election by a wide margin. Knowing that campaigns like this can win over the general public really begs a simple question: what are we doing?
The second Republican campaign does not pertain to a specific ad, but a series of ads run by Donald Trump’s team that attack Kamala Harris for her position on LGBTQ+ policies, specifically regarding transgender people. Once again, it’s astonishing how many ads like this ran this past election given how many more important issues exist other than transgender people, which in my opinion shouldn’t even be an issue in the first place. What bothered people the most about this campaign though is the slogan that every ad finished with. “Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you”. I feel like I shouldn’t need to explain why this is stupid and clearly rooted in bigotry, but given the fact that Donald Trump did end up securing the presidency, I may be underestimating the average American’s critical thinking skills.
It felt like every Republican campaign this past election cycle focused’s more on putting down certain minority groups than actually putting forth an argument for a candidate. Astonishingly this worked, as Republicans now hold the majority in the House, Senate and got their president into office.
The other side’s weren’t much better. One specific method campaigns typically utilize is region-specific ads. The Harris campaign did this as well, specifically in key battleground state of Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh, Harris ran an ad specific to the city and its suburbs which attempted to appeal to its native “yinzers.” This ad clearly ran in an attempt to pander to young white men, specifically sports fans, as the ad focused heavily on the speaker’s love for the Steelers. This obvious attempt to sway a demographic that traditionally votes Republican was not at all well received, as people saw right through the pandering, disingenuous facade of the campaign. Prominent NFL YouTuber and Pittsburgh native UrinatingTree criticized the ad and pointed out all its inaccuracies in a video posted to his X account. The ad turned out to be a huge failure, as proven by the Democrats failure to win Pennsylvania in the election, a state the Biden campaign won in 2020.
In regards to the Texas senate race, Colin Allred also ran some questionable ads, including one about the story of Dallas woman Kate Cox who had to leave Texas to receive an abortion because of the Ted Cruz-supported abortion ban. The ad does not necessarily do anything wrong, like the previous ones I’ve mentioned, but it makes no sense. The ad opens with Kate Cox discussing her grief over having three children, instead of two, as a result of her abortion. But this ad is supposed to be pro-abortion? It then quickly transitions to discussing how the abortion laws supported by Ted Cruz are unreasonable. She then talks about how happy she is to be pregnant again, and how that would not have been possible without an abortion. If you’re confused, it’s okay. I don’t get it either. Not only does this ad make no sense, but the little that does creates a horribly indefensible pro-abortion argument. It’s hard to imagine how this ad would pull anyone to vote for Colin Allred, and it clearly didn’t. Colin Allred lost the Senate race by a sizable margin.
Many of the campaigns run by Democrats this election cycle felt disingenuous, weak and ineffective which was likely a major factor in their horrible showing on election day.
The hateful, pandering, hyperbolic nature of this year’s political ads represents the current state of American politics, and it’s difficult not to gain a sense of despair concerning that connection. This election cycle’s campaigns were some of the most annoying and outright stupid we’ve ever seen, and many Americans can collectively breathe a sigh of relief knowing they’re now gone for another four years.
