God created six genders…or so James Talarico would have you believe, according to a new political ad from his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton. In the AI-generated video, the Texas Democrat sits at a desk rewriting the Book of Genesis, inserting six genders into the creation story and illustrating his revised Bible with a portrait of himself wearing a crown. What an extraordinary accusation and what a fabricated scene to deliver it through, the perfect political advertisement in this day and age.
With November's midterms approaching, American campaign ads are increasingly borrowing the logic of internet memes. The more absurd the premise, the greater its potential to attract attention. But how did American political advertising arrive here?
Does the increasingly bizarre spectacle have to do with persuading voters or is there something else at play? In New York's gubernatorial race, Republican Bruce Blakeman has circulated AI-generated videos featuring Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani gardening together while supposedly conspiring to raise costs for New Yorkers. In Ohio, an artificial Sherrod Brown has appeared as the unwelcome guest at a birthday party, helping himself to leftover cake.
Presumably, these ads are meant to influence how voters see the candidates. But their sheer absurdity raises another possibility—that getting people to watch and share them has become as important as changing anyone's mind. Nostalgia for a more dignified era of campaign advertising requires a selective memory.
In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower's campaign was already selling its candidate through a catchy animated jingle, I Like Ike, alongside more conventional appeals about policy. As Josh Bramlett, an assistant professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Alabama, points out, Adlai Stevenson objected to the commercial treatment of presidential candidates even then. By 1964, Lyndon Johnson's campaign had produced Daisy, the notorious advertisement in which a little girl picking flower petals gives way to a nuclear explosion.
The implication was that electing Barry Goldwater might bring about annihilation. The ad aired only once as a paid commercial, yet became a landmark of American political persuasion. Daisy employed an apocalyptic fantasy to communicate a recognizable political argument about nuclear judgment.
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