Political Ad Filmed In California Called Racist, Offensive
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A controversial campaign ad for a senate seat has one California lawmaker claiming it's pure racism.
The ad opens with a gong and shows a woman bicycling through a rice field in China before speaking to the camera in broken English.
"You're economy get very week. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie spend it now."
The ad for Michigan Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra is produced and shot in California. State Sen. Leland Yee is among those condemning it.
"It is racist to its core. It is offensive," said Yee (D-San Francisco). "Talk about the facts, but you don't have to reduce it to stereotypical caricatures."
In Sacramento, campaign consultants CBS13 spoke to talked about the risk vs. reward of releasing an ad that could be offensive to particular groups.
"I think you take the risk, especially something as big as this, only when you're desperate," said Democratic strategist Roger Salazar.
"You're trying to have something that's sexy, something memorable, something that cuts through the clutter," Republican strategist Aaron McLear said.
The man who shot this ad is well known in California political circles.
"So Fred Davis did this," McLear said. "Fred Davis also did the demon sheep commercial for (U.S. senate candidate) Carly Fiorina a couple years ago and a lot of folks here will remember. He's kinda known for these really memorable, very controversial ads and from his perspective the fact that this is a senate race in Michigan and the Sacrament affiliate TV station is doing a story on it, that means he won."
Hoekstra is standing by the commercial.
"The ad clearly lays out that the Chinese clearly benefit form the recklessness of U.S. spending. and U.S. economic policy," he said. "I don't see anything nasty in this ad at all."
