Cain says smoking ad had "no hidden message"

Despite the hubbub surrounding a rather mysterious campaign ad released by the Herman Cain team earlier this month, the candidate says there was "no hidden message" to the ad - and that it was just another example of letting "Herman be Herman."

The ad, which features his chief of staff Mark Block smoking a cigarette, was initially thought by some to be a prank. It has gotten close to a million YouTube views in just a few days and has been widely parodied. One parody features Block doing shots of tequila. 

But Cain, in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity Wednesday night, stood by the ad - and Block.

"We have a saying in my campaign, Sean: Let Herman be Herman. This is the attitude that I have when I do debates; this is the attitude that I have when I do interviews. Let Herman be Herman," Cain said in the interview. "Mark Block is my chief of staff, and we also say, let Mark be Mark."

Cain says his camp needed a new ad to post and found the Block video "hilarious."

"Many of us found [the ad] hilarious because we know Mark Block," he said. "So there was no hidden message there, other than, we were in Vegas and we wanted to put something new on the internet."

Cain suggested that the person who produced the video added the shot at the end featuring Cain laughing - a moment some have targeted.

"The person who did the ad for us added that little thing at the end, quite frankly, that as you say has caused all of the stir," the candidate added. "But there was no hidden message there other than mark block saying, America has never seen another candidate like Herman Cain."

the New York Times, Cain, while serving as president of the National Restaurant Association, joined cigarette makers in fighting restaurant smoking bans.