RFK Jr. Very Sorry His Family Offended By Super Bowl Ad He Continues Promoting Anyway
But also he had nothing to do with it at all!
Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign is, unfortunately, going better than expected, with the poll averages in which he is included putting him at about 17 percent nationally. This is at least partially due to his family name. But his family? They’re not so thrilled about it, and at this point may be worrying that they lobotomized the wrong one.
They were especially unhappy about a new $7 million ad aired by his PAC during the Super Bowl and the fact that it included images several members of their family who were unable to consent to appearing in the ad on account of how they are deceased.
“My cousin’s Super Bowl ad used our uncle’s faces and my Mother’s. She would be appalled by his deadly health care views,” wrote Bobby Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. “Respect for science, vaccines, & health care equity were in her DNA. She strongly supported my health care work at ONECampaign & RED which he opposes.”
The ad was more or less a chopped up version of a famous ad for RFK’s uncle, John F. Kennedy, but with pictures of RFK replacing those of JFK. Clearly that whole $7 million was spent on the ad time, because hell, I probably could have done this, and I am very bad at editing.
Here’s the original, which makes sense given the context of JFK’s presidential campaign, as it addresses his young age and (vaguely) his Catholicism, which was an issue for voters who were concerned he would be answering to the Pope on everything weird bigots.
And here is the RFK remix, which has nothing to do with his candidacy outside of reminding voters who he is related to:
Shriver wasn’t alone in finding the ad distasteful. His brother Mark and his sister Maria retweeted his sentiments themselves.
Upon seeing the tweet, RFK replied to Shriver and apologized, saying he had nothing to do with the ad and it was all his PAC’s doing.
“Bobby. I’m so sorry if that advertisement caused you pain,” he wrote. “The ad was created and aired by the American Values Superpac without any involvement or approvals from my campaign. Federal rules prohibit Superpacs from consulting with me or my staff. I send you and your family my sincerest apologies. God bless you.”
He also apologized from his own account, saying more or less the same thing. Alas, it did not ring all that sincere because he still had the ad as his pinned tweet — and still has it, as I am writing this.
“Our momentum is growing. It’s time for an Independent President to heal the divide in our country,” he wrote, though it’s a bit hard to imagine how a guy who is opposed to vaccines would go about healing anything.
PREVIOUSLY:
Did anyone else think that that JKF ad went on for a really long time given how little it had to say?
Weird how the culture around campaigning and ideas of what makes a good political ad have shifted so much over the years.
Hey, everywonk!
Vileaxxe is sick, so let's show her some love here in the comments. Maybe it will help her get her croissammich down.