Republicans got sacked running Super Bowl ads last year — but they don't seem tired of losing
One of the minor highlights of Super Bowl LVI was watching Republican candidates implode by running ads that could only charitably be described as fumbles.
Three GOP hopefuls bought pricey commercials from across the country with one common result: They couldn’t win their primaries. Losing U.S. Senate hopefuls Jim Lamon in Arizona and Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, and gubernatorial washout Perry Johnson in Michigan, all made truly dubious investments.
But that doesn’t mean viewers won’t see something of an instant replay. Johnson has already announced plans to air Super Bowl ads in Iowa to launch a 2024 presidential bid. That’s what one does after getting busted by Michigan GOP – and left off the 2022 primary ballot -- for having submitted too many fake signatures on nominating petitions.
Johnson’s 2022 Super Bowl business “guru” ad was bland, but was at least about himself, to no avail. The other two candidates tried a splashier approach.
Lamon aired an ad pathetically attempting to depict him as a Western hero in a shootout with President Joe Biden, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Lamon lost to Blake Masters, who would lose to Kelly.
McCormick got especially classy with his ad set to crowds shouting “Let’s Go, Brandon” – MAGA-speak for “F*** Joe Biden – which wingnuts thought was the coolest thing ever. McCormick lost to Mehmet Oz, who would lose to Sen. John Fetterman.
As the world waits not so anxiously to see how many Republicans will give it a try again at Sunday’s Super Bowl XVII, MSNBC commentator Ja’han Jones pointed out the hypocrisy of it all.
“In recent years, conservatives raised the volume of their whining over professional athletes and sports leagues that acknowledge social inequality. This, conservatives claimed, broke an unwritten rule that sports and politics cannot intermingle.
Never mind the fact that their gripes largely stem from actions taken by teams and players in the National Football League, an organization known for invoking ostensibly pro-American symbols that toe — if not outright cross — the line between patriotism and propaganda.”
That’s well said. But you have to admit that sometimes the commercials are more interesting than the game at a Super Bowl. Especially when you get to watch shaky Republican candidates drop the ball so badly.
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