Demon Sheep Ad Man Strikes Again, Morphs Boxer Into A Blimp (VIDEO)

There are no demon sheep in this advertisement; nor derisive comparisons of Barack Obama to Paris Hilton. But the quirky political ad man who produced those two cult classics has introduced another memorable spot. This one, an eight-minute opus casting Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cali.) as some sort of self-obsessed, Orwellian, hot air-balloon creature, floating maliciously through the skies of California.

The mind behind the madness is Fred Davis, a longtime GOP consultant whose quirky takes on traditional political advertising has placed him in the spotlight almost as often as his clients. In this case, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is the one writing Davis' check and getting some unconventional, attention-grabbing and political puzzling spots in return.

More than a month ago, the visual oddity Davis produced was a man posing as a demon sheep amidst a pure flock, a metaphor for the fiscal unsoundness of Fiorina's Senate primary opponent, Tom Campbell. On Saturday, in anticipation for the California Republican Party convention, Davis morphed Boxer's head into a foreboding blimp, in an effort to savage the Senator as an spotlight-seeking partisan.

WATCH THE FULL AD HERE:

Titled, "Hot Air," the ad's messaging and imagery is hardly subtle. There is the Hitchcock-inspired shot of the Capitol building with menacing birds swarming around it; the images of Boxer as a young pol, enjoying the "warm bask of attention"; the California Democrat's head expanding to ungodly proportions, bursting the Capitol dome into pieces; and then a talking Boxer blimp casting a shadow over her home state until it's punctured by a needle and falls like a bomb into the Pacific. There is even a gratuitous scene of fingernails scratching against a chalkboard -- which Davis likely included because actually calling Boxer shrill on camera would have be too outrageous and controversial.

The whole spot is bizarre to the point of hilarity -- which, it should be noted, is by design -- with clichéd charges of elitism and egotism, and a downright comic non sequitur between the stimulus package, terrorism and climate change.

NARRATOR: Since this stimulus unemployment in California has climbed to over 12 percent, the worst since the end of the Great Depression. Our national debt is now over $12 trillion. Homegrown terrorist opening fire and killing soldiers on an American military base. Foreign terrorists, trying to blow an American airplane on Christmas Day. And what does Barbara Boxer say is a national security threat?

BOXER: One of the very important national security issues we face frankly is climate change.

NARRATOR: WHAT?

To its credit, roughly half of the spot is devoted to Fiorina's record and biography. But it's a highly selective portrait. Rather than mentioning her firing from the board of Hewlett Packard and the steep drop in the company's stock during her tenure as CEO, the spot simply announces that she "leaned the company to profitability."

Boxer's campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski weighed in on the ad Saturday. "Not even another bizarre video can distract voters from Fiorina's record as a failed CEO who laid off 28,000 workers and shipped California jobs overseas. While Fiorina spends time producing works of fiction, Barbara Boxer is focused on creating good jobs in California and getting our economy back on track."

Comments

[hibeam]

02:24 PM on 04/16/2010

Greeks and Californians. The bottom of the financial intelligence pool. Maybe Mexico can bail us out, half there citizens seem to be living here.

[hibeam]

02:21 PM on 04/16/2010

If the blimp fits, wear it.

[Ivriniel]

11:40 AM on 03/31/2010

Who makes a campaign video that is over 7 minutes long?

[MissingAmerica]

01:21 PM on 03/15/2010

I just couldn't watch more than about a minute. We need facts in our politics. Do these people even know what's going on? Outrageous tax hikes? The tax hikes are for the most part to simply put in place tax laws that Bush wiped out when he gave his breaks to big business, the oil industry and the wealthiest 1% in this nation! Stimulus spending? It started with Bush. Can no one see that after the billions Bush gave it simply made sense, numbers wise, to try to save those businesses that were already into us for billions?! Maybe not smart, but it seemed logical. Unemployment? Have they not seen that we had no new job growth under Bush and, in fact, lost high paying jobs? When will we start seeing facts as opposed to this saturation of fairy tales and uniformed opinions?

[BlueRoseofTexas]

02:51 PM on 03/15/2010

Of course they know what's going on. They don't care. This is all about smoke and mirrors. Fred Davis is brilliant in his ability to get phenomenal buzz to surround his political spots but when it comes to actually focusing on what's important and what's real, not so much. This is the type of thing that is fogging up the public square with scare tactics, kabuki theatre and razz ma tazz. Too bad so many people are distracted by it, which is why it's brilliant.

[screechingllama]

01:08 PM on 03/15/2010

There is no bad situation that Carly cannot make WORSE. Beware!!!!

http://www.redstate.com/erick/files/2010/03/packardletter.pdf

[Vince Weiguang Li]

12:31 PM on 03/15/2010

Maybe you dont like the ad, that is fine & it is your right.

But it is time that she honor her campaign promise, that the current term would be her last, Unfortunately she has broken that promise and has decided to run again.

However, having watched the Boxer train wreck for too long, it is time for her to go. She is an embarrassment to the state of California. From her involvement in the House Banking scandal (she even had the guts to write a $15 check to the Deficit Reduction Fund on Non Sufficient Funds), to her involvement in the attempt to have the Ohio electoral results (The first Congressional objection to a State's electoral delegation in U.S. history since Reconstruction), and most embarrassing, her involvement in the Anita Hill pubic hair in the coke can fiasco. Least one consider her general ineffectiveness for Ca. as a whole.

She really has only one issue she has been elected on, Pro Choice. But her accession to power truly is a tribute to the power of the honorable Bill Burton and the female vote in California. It will be interesting to see how she will fare against a female opposition candidate, and if she will be able to over come an approximately 49% unfavorable view of her by the voters.

[KenMoore]

11:59 AM on 03/16/2010

If we want to talk banking scandals, let's talk about the one in the 80's. Remember the Keating 5? I seem to remember a senator who was involved with that...let's see... his name was....Oh yea, John Mccain!
It was a very big deal. And it was covered up as much as possible during the Reagan years. And he is still in office.

[Rand]

11:13 AM on 03/15/2010

I, for one, like demon sheep!

They make devilishly good lamb chops!

[grata2ude]

10:59 AM on 03/15/2010

Seriously. Who really listens to crap ads like this? As soon as one comes on I turn the station until they are done. That goes for both parties.

[BlueRoseofTexas]

02:52 PM on 03/15/2010

It probably hardly hit paid media. Because it's wildly creative it gets most of its exposure through media coverage like this. Serves more to get into the oppositions heads.

[jimpager]

10:15 AM on 03/15/2010

Wow...the ReThugs are nothing if not consistent. Carly Fiorina is maybe the worst
candidate in history...

1. Failed & Fired at HP. If you liked the failed execs of Wall Street, you'll love Carly.
2. First hand experience in laying off tens of thousands of employees...Her jobs
philosphy "There is no job that is Amerca's God-Given Right anymore.
3. HP, her supposed "job experience" is contributing to Barbara Boxer.
4. Did Carly order wiretaps of HP employees? Maybe she should run as the ReThug pres nominee?
5. Ran HP into the ground financially.
6. Fiorina's HP sheltered profits overseas.
7. Advised McCain on economics? Blind leading the blind? At least until McCain fired her too.

So as a Senator Fiorina, the Rethugs could have an all-woman presidential ticket in 2012...the half term governor from Alaska who can't manage her family along with the half-term Senator from California who couldn't manage to hold a job. They could run on a half-baked platform of tax breaks for the rich, saying no to everything else, and running half-truth attack ads on Obama.

You just couldn't make this stuff up...

[Nathan Ferguson]

12:26 PM on 03/15/2010

Well said my friend.

[Ravi Abunijad]

01:22 PM on 03/15/2010

Sadly, I bet you can't find a Republican in California who will acknowledge the truth behind any of those points. In their minds, this woman is an accomplished business executive leading a brilliant campaign, and all of those examples are just more proof of ignorant liberal lies. Good luck getting any mainstream corporate media outlets like CNN or FOX to publish that information, either, they're all salivating at the thought of having more lobbyists like Fiorina in office to get them lower taxes and less responsibility.

[KenMoore]

12:03 PM on 03/16/2010

That is probably correct. Which is why top executives who run their companies into the ground seem to get exorbitant severance packages, rather than get fired for incompetence.

[RickRude]

08:11 AM on 03/15/2010

Wow, that was whacked. What kind of Kook buys into that shite? I guess were gonna find out. I heard Carly did a bang up job as a CEO. Is the American Dream to fail upwards now?

[sdca4251]

06:58 AM on 03/15/2010

Did someone forget the KISS principle of advertising? Initially, it freaked me out with the floating balloon head through California. After the butch haircut, and then something about being a Medieval history major, I completely tuned out....

[kjohney]

05:38 AM on 03/15/2010

"This is not about talking. It's about getting something done"

So please vote republican, the party that has insured nothing ever gets done in Washington (or California).

[boomer7391]

07:09 AM on 03/15/2010

oh repubs get stuff done....they divide the country into good americans and the rest....they spend spend spend for corporations and defense wihtout pay pay pay and then complain that dems spend for people but pay

but the biggest thing they do, the real magic, is that they have somehow conviced half the country that they are on the side of the people when they clearly aren't....they have discovered if you get people angyry and keep the government from taking an extra $20 out of your paycheck to pay for your retirement you won't notice they've taken $50 out of your walle for higher prices/fuel/etc.

[Mr G]

01:33 AM on 03/15/2010

Yeah, Palin accomplished to actually teach the kids something. Turkey breasts aren't made by a machine and then wrapped in plastic.

[kevel]

01:13 AM on 03/15/2010

Carly Tzarina, needs some serious to take it easy on the meth, first demon sheep and now talking balloons, lady has must have some serious hallucinations

[Ravi Abunijad]

01:04 AM on 03/15/2010

I love how the video paints Fiorina as an average, everyday Californian looking out for the needs of voters.

She's a multimillionaire looking out for the interests of big corporations. She's a lobbyist! Come on.

[boomer7391]

07:10 AM on 03/15/2010

she got fired from her last job

[Ravi Abunijad]

01:17 PM on 03/15/2010

Haha, the sad thing is they will respond to that criticism by suggesting that she's even more like everyday Californians because she knows what it's like to lose a job you worked hard to get.