Democrat Dan Helmer is running for Congress in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, but if his first TV ad is any indication he will not be winning any karaoke awards or picking up many new voters. Even liberals are left cringing after a viewing.
The new ad features Dan Helmer, a veteran of the U.S. Army riding up on a motorcycle in sunglasses and a leather bomber jacket before entering a bar where opponent Rep. Barbara Comstock sits.
First-time candidate Helmer seems to hope that voters will see his military service as enough to turn moderate, establishment Republican Comstock out of her seat. He also seems to hope his karaoke commercial will seem “funny” to potential voters.
What happens next in the video is so annoying that even left-wing Slate calls it “the worst ad of 2018”:
Slate isn’t alone. The Daily Beast also calls it “The Worst Congressional Campaign Ad Ever.”
“Whoever told House Democratic candidate Dan Helmer this ad was a great idea should reevaluate whether negative attention could be considered good attention,” the Daily Beast wrote.
Even Esquire magazine warns readers that it might be impossible to make it through the ad “without cringing.”
The negative reviews hang on Helmer’s horrible karaoke-styled parody of the tune “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” in which the candidate sings about how Rep. Comstock won’t hosgt a town hall and how she voted against Obamacare.
Helmer accuses Comstock of “losing that centrist feeling” and for “right-wing appealing” until the actress playing Comstock leaves the bar in a huff.
The candidate’s wife did offer one small bit of good advice in the ad. Just as the candidate prepares to break out into song, Mrs. Helmer, who plays a bartender in the ad, tells her husband not to do it.
“Listen to your wife, Dan!” the Daily Beast pleaded.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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