It’s been 16 long years since Carly Fiorina’s infamously weird “demon sheep” ad from the 2010 California Republican primary. Everyone remembers the scary sheep costume, but nobody remembers the target of the ad, former Rep. Tom Campbell, who was polling well ahead of Fiorina at the time. And almost nobody remembers “FCINO,” the cringey unpronounceable acronym the ad’s creator, Fred Davis, came up with to tar Campbell as a “fiscal conservative in name only.” The three-minute (!) ad ran online only, and may or may not have actually helped Fiorina win the primary, but “demon sheep” is forever. (Trivia fun: 2010 was also the year voters approved Prop 14, which switched California from partisan primaries to its current top-two system.)
This year brings us a possible antithesis to the demon sheep: the ironic baby alpaca. It stars in this little ad from Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Doyle (D), which for Wonkette’s money ($47 and a sandwich) is the most pleasant combination of niceness and metacommentary we’ve seen in the 2026 midterms. Admittedly, that’s a very narrow category.
The 14-second spot is simplicity itself: Doyle addresses the camera directly while holding a cute little baby alpaca, and decries the manipulative emotional appeals so common in political ads:
DOYLE: Have you noticed how politicians prey on emotions to influence voters? They’ll show you pictures of cute babies or use scare tactics to get you outraged over something they just made up. They’ll exploit anything to get you to make an emotional decision instead of focusing on what they plan to do if elected.
I'm gonna cut taxes, lower healthcare costs, and hold Big Tech accountable. Please don't fall for emotional appeals. Oh, and this is my baby alpaca, Pasta. She hopes you'll vote for me!
OK, fine, and we’re also pretty sure that Doyle, who has represented his La Crosse County district since 2011, mostly made the ad for high school and college writing instructors to show their classes in discussions of rhetorical appeals. The ad’s gentle self-referential lampshade-hanging also burnishes Doyle’s credibility: This affable guy knows the political ad game, but instead of seeming cynical, he invites us to join in the joke, because we too know the game. Besides, that’s one cute alpaca, and surely a guy who’s that nice wouldn’t bamboozle us.
It’s really a clever little ad, and this Doktor of Rhetoric approves.
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Going the self-referential route isn’t guaranteed to be a hit, though, especially if your ad ventures into edgier territory. Honestly, we really like this horror-movie themed ad for California congressional candidate Angela Gonzales-Torres, which skewers fearmongering about “socialism” by treating policies like “tax the billionaires” and “healthcare that people can actually afford” as the literal stuff of Republican nightmares.
At the end, in the “morning after” zinger, Gonzales-Torres herself pokes her head through the terrified Republican lady’s door and offers to discuss “housing as a human right,” for one more scare.
The ad also features comedians Anna Garcia and Hannah Pilkes, who did this hilarious improv bit about a “totally platonic friendship between two straight people who will both come out in college,” on Dropout’s streaming game show “Make Some Noise.”
Not everyone loves it, though, at least not in the Bluesky comments. It was produced by Los Angeles DSA, which all on its own makes some folks mean mad, while others simply found the horror movie tropes off-putting. And while a lot of people liked how the ad leans into mocking the GOP’s “socialism is scary!” rhetoric, a vocal minority in the comments didn’t like that the ad uses the “vote for us to piss off the other side” framing so popular with Righties. We’d say that’s a moot point, because rightwingers are also deeply offended when Zohran Mamdani reads books to children. Maybe another ad could make fun of that nightmare? Horror franchises are all about sequels.
And speaking of sequels, we like this roller disco ad from Juliana Stratton of Illinois, who’s the favorite to win the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Dick Durbin.
The ad has a good beat and you can skate to it, and since it’s Illinois, the general election was largely decided by Stratton’s March primary win over Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly. If you want to see the ad as expressing confidence that Stratton will skate to victory over the sacrificial Republican nominee, Some Guy Who Was Formerly Illinois GOP Chair Don Tracy, Stratton probably won’t mind.
But we’ll be honest: We’re really just posting the All Skate ad because it’s an excuse to re-post Stratton’s cleverly cussy primary ad featuring a string of voters (including Stratton’s soon-to-be colleague Tammy Duckworth, who endorsed her) all saying “Fuck Trump,” while Stratton herself coyly avoids dropping the F-bomb herself.
And speaking of wonderful cussy ads — as you may have noticed, this ADHD-inflected ad roundup is just one long stream of loose logical connections — here’s a real corker from Mississippi’s delightful Scott Colom, who’s giving superannuated incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith a genuine challenge.
Back in February, in response to a TV interviewer’s question about high beef prices and Trump’s failure to make everything affordable on Day One, Hyde-Smith instead touted Republicans’ already unpopular Big Beautiful Blowies for Billionaires Bill, and promised its rollback of Joe Biden’s war on oil would soon slash fuel costs and make food cheaper. (Instead, just days later, Trump attacked Iran.) She added that folks needn’t worry about expensive beef, anyway: “And you know, you have so many proteins to choose from. And all commodities go through peaks and valleys. It is a global market, but we will be seeing a difference, I truly believe, because of so many things.”
Colom’s campaign is determined not to let her live it down. We freaking LOVE this ad! It’s the Where’s the Beef? of 2026, but cussier. After a clip of Hyde-Smith looking hopelessly out of touch in the interview, a white guy grilling burgers exclaims, “Pick another protein? Shiiiit, I’d rather pick another senator instead.” And then the bass line from “Rapper’s Delight” kicks in. It’s art, folks.
Burger Guy is followed by an incredulous elderly Black lady enjoying some nice … hmmm, chicken-fried steak? She too says “Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I’d rather pick another senator.” A middle-aged white lady in a supermarket’s next: “Pick another protein. What the ffffff?” Then a chuckling Scott Colom, sitting at his own kitchen table, drives the kitchen-table-issues ad’s point home: “Pick another Senator!”
And finally, at the recommendation of Kid Zoom, this lovely parody of public-access educational shows from real-life public policy prof Todd Achilles, who’s getting a lot of buzz for his own long-shot Senate campaign against fossilized Idaho Republican Jim Risch. The ad offers “politicians” an important lesson on how not to start a disastrous foreign war.
Like the Scott Doyle ad we started with, it’s playful but injects a serious point. Achilles asks, “You may be thinking to yourself, ‘How do I not start a dumb war?’” Then there’s a jump cut — thankfully, without a cliché record scratch sound effect — and Achilles adopts a sober, not-joking tone, explaining that as an Army tank commander in the Gulf War, he’s seen firsthand the deadly consequences of war, and the stress it inflicts on American servicemembers and their families. War can’t be pursued for trivial reasons. Then we’re back to the fake edutainment, as Achilles goofs on the conventions of TV: “I came up with a simple acronym: ‘DONT.’ It stands for don’t, as in ‘DON’T.’”
Damn good ad! And as a wiseacre at Reddit said, “If a guy named Achilles tells you not to start a war, you probably shouldn't.”
Good ads, all, and not a single one relying on fear or cruelty.
ALSO TOO: Get out your library cards or visit your preferred local new/used bookseller, because Wonkette Book Club is back, baby! In a couple weeks we’ll start discussing Bill McKibben’s 2025 bestseller Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, all about how solar energy (and wind ‘n’ storage) can get us out of our climate fix and remake the world’s economies with justice for all (but we gotta do it fast and do it right.) More here!
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When it comes to the crazy ads, I think I’m still partial to Christine O'Donnell telling us that she’s not a witch.
https://bsky.app/profile/katejackson.bsky.social/post/3mxzzfoqodc2y
Happy weekend
https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/report-brace-for-impact-protecting-people-and-the-economy-when-the-ai-bubble-burst
𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘣𝘵, 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯.