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Politics Michigan Senate Candidate Criticized for Allegedly Racially Insensitive Super Bowl Ad
- Posted on February 5, 2012 at 8:50pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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(AP) — The portrayal of a young Asian woman speaking broken English in a Super Bowl ad being run by U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra against Michigan incumbent Debbie Stabenow is bringing charges of racial insensitivity.
GOP consultant Nick De Leeuw flat-out scolded the Holland Republican for the ad.
“Stabenow has got to go. But shame on Pete Hoekstra for that appalling new advertisement,” De Leeuw wrote on his Facebook page Sunday morning. “Racism and xenophobia aren’t any way to get things done.”
A media consultant who has advised Democrats also thought it could prove problematic.
“Some Asian-Americans may be offended by the stereotype that is portrayed in the spot,” said Robert Kolt, who teaches advertising part-time at Michigan State University and had previewed a number of Sunday’s Super Bowl ads. “Pete seems like a nice guy in the ad, but I think he is wasting a lot of money now. … It’s just not Super Bowl-worthy. It’s not cute, it‘s not funny and it’s not memorable.”
Hoekstra campaign spokesman Paul Ciaramitaro said the ad is meant to be satirical. Hoekstra’s Facebook page, which by early evening was getting a barrage of criticism on the ad, snapped back that those “trying to make this an issue of race demonstrates their total ignorance of job creation policies.” On YouTube, the ratings buttons on the ad were disabled after it aired.
“Democrats talk about race when they can’t defend their records,” Ciaramitaro said. “The U.S. economy is losing jobs to China because of Stabenow’s reckless spending policies. China is reaping the reward.”
The 30-second ad was filmed in California and never mentions China directly. It opens with the sound of a gong and shows a young Asian woman riding a bike on a narrow path lined by rice paddies.
Stopping her bike, the woman smiles into the camera and says, “Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow. Debbie spends so much American money. You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow.”
The scene then shifts to Hoekstra telling viewers near a cozy fire, “I think this race is between Debbie Spenditnow and Pete Spenditnot.”
The Hoekstra campaign set up a website,www.DebbieSpendItNow.com , that features the ad and includes Chinese writing, paper lanterns, parade dragons and Stabenow’s face on a Chinese fan. It accuses the Democratic senator of “pouring American dollars into the Chinese economy.”
Democrats were quick to challenge the premise of the ad, referring to Hoekstra’s 18 years in the U.S. House and the fact that he joined a Washington-based law and lobbying firm last year.
“Hoekstra’s ad is nothing more than a hypocritical attempt at a Hollywood-style makeover because the fact is, Pete spends a lot,” Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer said. “Hoekstra voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and voted for trillions more in deficit spending before quitting Congress to get rich at a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm. Hoekstra is using the big game to play games with Michigan voters.”
Hoekstra GOP Senate rival Gary Glenn of Midland struck a similar theme.
“Saving America from the Washington, D.C., politicians who gave us this crippling debt and deficit crisis, Republican and Democrat alike, means Hoekstra and Stabenow should both get benched,” Glenn said in a release.
In response to the Hoekstra ad, the state Democratic Party launched a website, hoekstrahoax.com, as well as a 60-second Web ad Sunday that shows a 2010 campaign ad run against Hoekstra by GOP gubernatorial rival Mike Cox.
Hoekstra’s hoping to get the same bump from his ad that now-Gov. Rick Snyder got with his 2010 Super Bowl ad portraying himself as “one tough nerd.” Both ads were created by media strategist Fred Davis of California-based Strategic Perception Inc.
The new ad is a twist on the anti-Republican “moving jobs to China” theme that Michigan Democrats successfully used against 2006 GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and tried to use against Snyder in 2010. This time, the focus isn’t on Republican businessmen sending jobs to China but on what Hoekstra says is Democratic overspending that has weakened the U.S. economy.
Stabenow, who’s running for a third term, has pushed for trade policies aimed at China that impose duties and penalties on countries that manipulate their currency and penalize companies that steal intellectual property from U.S. companies. She’s using the Hoekstra ad to raise money for her campaign, which already has nearly $6 million on hand.
Hoekstra’s campaign is spending $75,000 to air the ad statewide Sunday. Supporters who donated $7.50 got to see the ad online before it aired Sunday morning in the Detroit media market. It aired in the Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo areas before the Super Bowl began and during the game in the Traverse City, Flint, Lansing and Marquette media markets, the campaign said.
The ad is set to run over the next two weeks on cable TV shows targeted at GOP voters.
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Comments (284)
hi
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 8:42amGreat ad!! I love it. We should have her do an ad against SpenditnowObama!!
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 8:40amHoly wow, she’s cute! She can speak in a broken accent all day to me if she wants, I won’t mind. :)
I find it rather bizarre to call the ad racist. It speaks to me more of the inherent racism of the person claiming “racism”, really.
Report Post »PPMStudios
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 8:19amSeriously, who gives a crap? They showed the Eskimo commercial twice and I haven’t heard anyone complain about the Eskimos, their sled, and their Igloo…. Talk about stereotyping…..
Give me a break…..
Report Post »Gimme Shelter
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 8:01amLibs being libs!! Why waste anymore characters!!
Report Post »nelbert
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:48amYea, that was so racially insensitive. Not like when Harry Reid called Obama ‘light-skinned’ ‘with no ***** dialect’.
Report Post »nelbert
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:50amHaha … and even the auto-detect tool has been coded to mark Reid‘s reference as ’offensive’ by replacing the word with asterisks.
Report Post »RedDawn2012
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:35amI riked it velly much. Terrific ad, cute babe, good satire, easy to absorb, short and to the point. What’s NOT to like … unless you’re a PC sicko, and who cares what THEY think?
Report Post »modelmax
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:32amNotice how the Libs scream the loudest whenever they hear the truth.
Report Post »oldsoldier10
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:02amDamn and I though the hot asian chick was running for something, finally an attractive democrat, denied. Truth sux don’t it.
Report Post »eshaw380
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:57amSo is all rap music racism? (sorry , hip-hop. RAP died with Tupac) Now its all one stereotype lyric after another…I think it is racism…Truth is racism, tell the truth makes you a racist. The word truth itself is a grand dragon…
Report Post »whereareyourbrains
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:41amI asked for someone who speaks better english…guess what…they hang up now. You gotta call back and they hang up again. You buy their product…..you are stuck with their outsoursing. Stop buying their products and that will do more damage than asking for someone to speak ENGLISH
Report Post »The American People
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:38amThis idiot has got to go too. NO ONE is a racist anymore, everyone is just CALLED one these days. Its sunny out! Racist! I’m Hungry! Racist! Put it away Al sharpton! Its old and tired now, stop dividing everyone idiot.
Report Post »grumpyt
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 6:06amRacist? NOT! Continue to stand and say “Enough!!”. We have taken all we are going to take and if you don’t like it, oh well.
Take back our country, our language, our airwaves, our land, our LIVES!
Report Post »kookie
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:59amWhat the hell is wrong with that ad? I just can’t take the political correctness anymore. And, by the way, I live in one of them “******* counties” down here in Florida……it has become commonplace to make fun of everything Christian, conservative and being from the south.
Report Post »go4freedom
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 1:53amExcellent ad. Love it.
Report Post »This is true about Liberals. This country is broke because of them. Liberals are good at playing race card, lies, restricting our freedom, and spending our hard-earn money. We have to remove them from the office this November. They have ruined this country enough already.
Get America back from these evil people!
tharpdevenport
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 1:48amI’ve known plenty of legal immigrants that have been here a few years or twenty, and they still can’t speak English very well. Not as sterotypical as in this commercial, but still.
But the ad did offend me, and it’s very poor sportsmanship.
The girl, on the other hand, is the more important issue. Can we please have bigger, higher resolution pictures of her. ;-)
Report Post »Pharmer1
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 1:30amThis ad is about taxation driving industry and trade to China, it’s not about race. It does not degrade the Chinese people in any way. Only the leftists (looking for something to whine about) would find the portrayal of near-fluency in a second language to be degrading. I’m impressed with anyone who is functionally communicating in a second language, and do not see leaving the s off the verb to be degrading. Also, I don’t blame the Chinese for taking advantage of self-destructive American economic policies. That’s capitalism!
Report Post »katzenbacker73
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:40amClearly all the conservatives need to use the Racist Decoder ap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ZG4ZmrM3o
Report Post »Talmid of Yeshua
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:35amNothing racist, just the truth. Demoncrats can’t handle the truth.
Report Post »abbygirl1994
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:35amSo he is he criticized by, the libera left. Tough titty said the kitty.. You have enough of us who says.. He Got it just right in my book!
Report Post »UrbanCombatSurvivor
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:30amHaHAHA, somehow some moron finds this racist? Oh man, it’s not even worth holding back the laugh at the idiocy anymore…
Report Post »Elcigaro
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:15amBroken English? She spoke better English than MIA did at the Super Bowl!
Report Post »The Third Archon
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:15amYeah, no this is quite possibly the most racist political ad to go on television in a while.
Report Post »ipockpa
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:09amShe sounded like the American actress she was.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:07amThe only thing racist going on is how the Democrats designate anything that is not 100% Lilly White something to be marginalized and exploited as a victim of whatever race they happen to be. “organizing” baby..
Report Post »bottlegnomesdolphin
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 12:04amThe next time I call tech support maybe I’ll tell the person on the other end of the phone to stop being racist and speak English correctly.
Report Post »