No, I Don't Follow This Political Ad About Wedding Dresses, Either

This gleeful young woman models
the Republican wedding dress. Because apparently,
you can only explain politics to women
in terms of fashion.  

It's easy to find really, really, REALLY bad political campaign advertisements, but I think I found one that is a contender for one of the worst ever.

Introducing the Tom Corbett and Rick Scott wedding dresses!

The freaky ad, you can see it at the bottom of this post, was dreamed up by the College Republican National Committee, and s being used by at least three campaigns.

One of them is Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, running against Democrat Tom Wolf.  Another is for  Florida Republican Rick Scott, who is seeking re-election victory over challenger Charlie Crist.

Republicans are trying to attract women to vote, and this is supposed to make women fall in love with Republicans.  Apparently they think this is the way to do it. Just compare your favorite Republican to wedding dresses. Or maybe imagine your favorite Republican in a wedding dress? Ugh.

Maybe the Republicans have this weird wedding dress ad because, after all, women are too fragile to think about things like the economy, foreign policy and climate change. They should only concern their pretty little heads with things like frilly wedding dresses and wearing perfect makeup on their face.

We'll let the menfolk worry about politics. They've done such a good job with it in recent years. (Cough, cough.)

Here's how Slate tries to describe this truly weird ad, which apparently is inspired by the television reality show "Say Yes To the Dress."

"'The Rick Scott is perfect,' says our blond and youthful heroine, Brittany, admiring herself in the mirror while wearing a wedding dress, which is thing Republicans heard women like to wear. 

Her friends ooh and aah. But mom, who is of course a harridan because she dared age past 35, has other ideas. 'I like the Charlie Crist,' she says as we see Brittany - an undecided voter, by the way - in a frumpier dress. 'It's expensive and a little outdated, but I know best.' "

Then the ominous music starts playing because you're supposed to be afraid of Charlie Crist. Or at least the Charlie Crist dress.

The Pennsylvania add featuring the Corbett dress is pretty much identical to the Florida one.

Bloomberg View has a great headline for this story, "Does This Dress Make Me Look Republican?" and also raises a very good point.

Cookie cutter ads, the same ones used by candidates across the country, might make voters think that the candidates are beholden to outside interests who made the ads and don't understand local values.

Or, they'll make them laugh really, really hard because it makes them imagine Tom Corbett and Rick Scott in hideously designed wedding dresses.

Maybe the two candidates can put them on, and have the contestants on Project Runway improve on them to make them presentable.

Here's the video: