Vice President Kamala Harris has a problem with winning the votes of men — and a new ad is not helping.
The 90-second ad shares the profiles of six different men with tough-guy personas, as they each open with the words, “I’m a man.” Then they all share their testosterone-filled bona fides, which include drinking bourbon, grilling steak and “dead lift[ing] 500 [pounds] and then braid the shit out of my daughter’s hair.”
Then each man proclaims they are not afraid of women, which they define as supporting abortion, IVF, and “childless cat ladies.”
Exactly halfway through the ad, it reaches its point, “macho men should support Harris.”
The Russians are making fun of Americans for this Harris-Walz ad
‘I’m a man’s, man… MAN!’: The cringiest political ad you’ll ever see, thanks Harris-Walz
Disclaimer: the men in this video are actually not men, they’re “childless cat ladies”. pic.twitter.com/O6hFSNQK3f
— TrueDispatch (@true_dispatch) October 12, 2024
The last shot in the ad is a smiling Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in front of a wall of text that reads, “Man Up, Vote, Get Involved.”
However, X users quickly pointed out that none of the men are actually the cowboys and bikers that they appear to be. Under bolded words “Theater Kids Pretending,” one user posted a sheet of information that purportedly showed that each man in the ad was an actor.
The Dallas Express did some digging and corroborated that point; these are actors. The original YouTube page for the video lists the actors’ names as Winston Carter, Chris Gibson, Lanre Idewu, Tony Ketcham, Mike Leffingwell and Wayland McQueen.
Scouring IMBD shows that each man appears to have been in a few commercials or small films, as extras or bit characters.
However, there was much more to this ad than just these men’s professions.
Although it gives the impression of being an official paid-for Harris campaign advertisement, it was actually produced by Creatives for Harris, a group supporting the vice president’s candidacy, according to Director Jim Reed. Reed formerly worked for Funny or Die and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
This would make one wonder if the ad is a spoof. Reed wrote on Substack it is “more sketch comedy than political ad,” before adding that “what these men are saying is true.”
“With the rise of role models like Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff on the national stage, I think the left is finally finding its footing on how to talk about masculinity — I think we’re overdue for a redefinition of what it means to be a man in America and I hope this campaign can start to shape that conversation. Because even though it’s more sketch comedy than political ad, what these men are saying is true — except being afraid of bears. A bear will straight-up kill you,” he wrote.
Spoof, semi-spoof, or serious, art appears to imitate life, as the advertisement’s inability to persuade men reflects a greater issue for the Harris campaign.
Obama recently took to the campaign trail, trying to triage Harris’ image with black men. Fully 51% of black men under 50 did not indicate support for Harris in a recent NAACP poll, DX previously reported.
A CNN poll in late September showed a super majority of white men, 58%, supported Donald Trump, while only 35% supported Harris.
Harris’s lead with Hispanic men is shockingly small at just 55% to 45%, according to Pew Research.
Asians represent such a small proportion of the U.S. population, and Asian voting-age males an even smaller portion. This likely explains why there is very little polling on Asian male support for either political candidate. However, some outlets are reporting a surge in support for Trump among Koreans (although Harris has not yet lost her majority), while South Asians are reported to be rallying behind her.
