This ad started making the rounds last night. The only noteworthy thing about it—it’s incompetently put together, of course, but what else would you expect from the Cain campaign? That’s not news—is that long drag on a cigarette at :40. What are they saying with that? Is Herman Cain trying to court the smoker vote? Does he have some plan to repeal non-smoking laws?

The really unbelievable thing about this video is how such a stupid minute-long commercial can be so fascinating. I’ve watched this hot mess like four or five times in a row, now, trying to determine some kind of secret meaning. I also love Cain’s creepy smile at the end of the video. It really screams, “I might be in on this joke with you, or I might be a total fucking moron. You just won’t know until it’s too late!”

(Slog tipper Jason sent this along as I was working on this post, which makes him an Official Slog Tipper.)

38 replies on “The Creepiest Herman Cain Ad Yet”

  1. His body language reminds me of that of a person forced to read the demands of his captors, all the while shaking his head “no” as a way to signal to authorities not to comply.

    And is applying bokeh in post supposed to give it that hip, amateurish feel?

  10. Going for the 50-60 something white male smoker demographic because it is such a large part of the electorate! At some point is it going to be revealed that we are all being punked? Comedy Central is going to say “gotcha!”

  11. The cigarette drag has to be symbolic. Here’s a dangerous guy who doesn’t care about his health or future talking to you about putting the United back in USA. Weird.

  17. Shaking the head can sometimes mean you’re serious. The puff on the cigarette means you’re serious also. And the 60-year-old demographic is pretty important; this country is aging fast. There’s nothing in that ad that would scare away that demographic. Cain’s smile at the end means he’s not an angry black man.

  19. Sarah @17 is right – up to a point. However, as part of that same demographic, I think it’s still pretty creepy. On the other hand, I don’t live in West Virginia or some place like that, either.

  23. DougSf: you’re on the money. Dude’s not happy to be saying those words, not at all. He’s sick and tired of the lies and the threats. He almost didn’t go through with it, but that punch in the gut right before shooting convinced him otherwise.

    And I’m pretty sure, judging from that smile, The Herman Cain is an insectoid alien who will shed his humanoid appearance on the night of his election and lead his species to the most divine mass feeding ever.

  28. #18–I went to watch the Red House ad. Ha. But most interesting is the No on 1183 ad (“Don’t Let Costco Buy Our Democracy”) that came first! Wow, targeting…

  34. It’s a libertarian thing. Smoking is legal, but is highly regulated. Cain is all about deregulation. It’s a flip-off. I also think he knows he can’t win but is making as much hay as he can. Sarah Palin created a new paradigm: run for the money.

  36. One must remember that after Cain left Godfather’s pizza he headed the Restaurant Assn and turned what was a pretty useless group into a lobbying powerhouse with funding from–wait for it–big tobacco!

  38. Until I actually watched it, I thought you were referring to Cain smoking and the message would have been, “Heck, yeah, I smoke but – unlike that other guy – I’m open about it.”

    Still, the smoking could be the adult version of the whole freedom-to-do-stupid-stuff message (the younger version is letting kids eat as much junk food as they want, because having the FLOTUS promote an anti-obesity campaign is like fascist, or something).

    I’m also reminded of the argument made by smokers decades ago that smoking should not be outlawed because smokers were doing the health care system a favour by dying off early! ::rolls eyes::

    I guess that creepy smile at the end is appearing just at the right time … Halloween, that is!

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