Senate Candidate Under Fire for Super Bowl Ad
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Win McNamee/Getty Images(DETROIT) — Amid spring-loaded babies and Ferris Bueller flashbacks, there was one Super Bowl ad that had few people laughing. While it ran only in Michigan, U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra’s campaign ad featuring an Asian woman speaking broken English is being criticized Monday around the country.
In the ad, Hoekstra, a former U.S. House Representative, dubs his Democratic Senate rival Debbie Stabenow “Debbie Spend It Now” for supporting policies that cause American jobs and investments to be outsourced to China.
“Debbie spend so much American money, you borrow more and more from us,” says a young Asian woman riding her bike through rice paddies at the beginning of the 30-second ad. “You’re economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie ‘Spend It Now.’”
It is the racial undertones of the ad that have critics up in arms.
Hoekstra responded to the barrage of criticism Sunday night, writing on his Facebook page that “Democrats trying to make this an issue of race demonstrates their total ignorance of job creation policies.”
He said Monday that he thinks the ad has been “very effective.”
“It’s a very straightforward message,” Hoekstra told the Detroit Free Press. “There’s nothing racist in this ad. This is all about holding Debbie accountable for her reckless spending.”
The $150,000 ad buy is set to air across Michigan for two weeks. The Hoekstra campaign did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Late last month, Vice President Joe Biden made headlines for affecting an Indian accent during a speech about outsourcing.
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