Adwatch: Death Of A Governor?!

Ah, yes, we move into the exciting third day of Adwatch. So far we’ve done ads attacking Lois Murphy (by the Republican National Congressional Committee) and Rick Santorum (by a pro-Little League Bob Casey), and today we’ll all take a look at one of Lynn Swann’s latest ads.

Despite his pedigree as a football player and a football sideline reporter, it appears Swann isn’t going to take the Pennsylvania election this year. Ed Rendell is leading by, uh, lots and lots of points in the polls, and Swann will end up doing TV analysis of Steelers games or something come late November. That hasn’t stopped him from continuing to take to the airwaves, however. After the jump, his Rendell attack ad.

WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? First, Ed Rendell is a disco dancer. Then he’s doing, uh, Jazzercise or something, then he’s in Miami Vice along with Pac-Man. Then he’s an early 1990s MC Hammer backup dancer, and later a dude out front of a green screen that they put Independence Hall on.

Still, I must say, nice attempt at comedy in this ad. It, uh, kinda fails, but it’s a refreshing break to see political ads done with the same amount of humor (and equal production values) to local car dealership advertisements.

I am a little troubled by the last shot of the Rendell impersonator we see:

Holy shit! Did Swann’s campaign ad kill off Ed Rendell?!