May 23, 2024 11:47 AM UTC

Reminder: Don't Show Your Candidate Next to a Horse's Ass!

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Despite several challengers over the years, the owner of “Worst Political Ad in Modern Colorado History” has continued to hold that imaginary title since 2006.

You know the one…

That’s former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez, whose infamous 2006 campaign ad showed him talking to the camera while literally standing next to a horse’s ass. It’s a mistake that seemed glaringly-obvious from the moment this ad first ran on television, but for whatever reason it was completely missed by Beauprez’s team of advisers. The idea was for Beauprez to talk about how there is a lot of “horseshit” in politics. Instead, his campaign just ended up branding Beauprez as a “horse’s ass.”

This is why smart campaigns always preview potential ads by watching once with the sound off and once more with their back to the screen (to hear only the sound); it’s how you catch an unintentional message before the damage is done.

Yet somehow, this simple lesson has not yet been learned by some Colorado politicians.

Former House Minority Leader Mike Lynch is out with a new ad for his campaign for Congress in CO-04 that includes several barbs at GOP carpetbagging frontrunner Lauren Boebert.

Unfortunately for Lynch, the ad also prominently displays footage of Lynch next to a horse’s ass:

Lynch didn’t have much money in his campaign account after the first quarter fundraising period, so this particular campaign commercial probably isn’t getting a lot of air time at the moment. That might be for the best, because Lynch also made another dumb mistake that should go down as another important reminder for future candidates: Don’t wear the same outfit in your television ad that you were wearing in the arrest video when you were pulled over for an egregious DUI.

The best thing we can say about this ad from Lynch is that he is so far behind the other candidates in the June 25th Republican Primary that none of this will likely matter much.

As for all of you aspiring politicians out there, learn from your predecessors and keep the horse booty out of the camera shot.