TPM Editor’s Blog

Sleaziest Ad of the Year

Sleaziest Ad of the Year

I was traveling last week. So I missed this when it first came out. But even in a year rife with racist and xenophobia ad imagery, this ad by David Vitter attacking Charlie Melancon on illegal immigration has to be the rankest I’ve ever seen. The inset you see to your left is the whooping and hollaring bandana-clad illegals driving off in the limo Melancon had waiting for them at the hole they’d cut in the border fence along with their poster board welfare check. You really just have to watch it, maybe a couple times, taking special note of the skin color of the various characters in the ad.

Watch it here. Just watch.

It’s almost quaint to think that people found that Jesse Helms notorious ‘hands’ ad so outrageous back in 1990. Or Pete Wilson anti-immigration ads in 1994.

Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

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