U.S. Chamber gives Sen. Brown gritty new look in political ad

December 31, 1969

Cincinnati.com

Deirdre Shesgreen

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is blanketing Ohio with a new ad blasting Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown for a “tax raising, job killing” record.

In many ways, the ad is par for the course for any super-charged election season—highlighting Brown’s support for “raising energy taxes” (i.e. eliminating oil and gas company tax breaks, among other votes) and for President Obama’s health care reform law.

But the Ohio Democratic Party seemed most incensed by a photo featured in the Chamber ad, in which Brown appears unkempt and unshaven.

“Apparently not content with simply distorting Sherrod’s record, they’ve even taken  to distorting his picture,” the state Dems said in a news release criticizing the ad. A side-by-side comparison of the picture used in the ad and the original, it looks like the Chamber made a few adjustments—including adding a 5 o’clock shadow so the senator looks a little more gritty.

It was apparently enough to spark a reaction from Brown’s wife, journalist Connie Schultz, who wrote on her Facebook page that the altered photo makes Brown look “dark and unshaven. These are fake images.”

J.P. Fielder, a Chamber spokesman, said “I don’t have an answer to where the photo was changed, or if it was.” But he argued that the Democrats’ focus on the photo meant they didn’t want to talk about the substance.

“He is running away from his record,” Fielder said, echoing the main theme of the ad, which also includes imagines of a man running and trying to find a place to hide. “That’s what we do with these ads is educate voters on where candidates stand.”

The Ohio Democratic Party said it had problems with the ad on substance and technicalities. In its news release, the party says the ad “falsely” claims that Brown voted to raise taxes, “when in reality he voted to end massive tax breaks for only the 5 biggest oil companies who are enjoying billions in profits while Ohioans struggle with prices at the pump.”

Fielder said the spot is running statewide in Ohio and wasn’t sure how long it would be on the air.

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