Halloween in political ads: From beyond the grave to beyond the pale

Election Day always follows hard on Oct. 31, so political ads regularly riff on — and rip off — Halloween, erecting gratuitous gravestones or mining images from gory horror flicks. In a current ad on the sidebar at The Huffington Post, Al Franken’s disembodied head appears delighted enough to dance on democracy’s grave. But one person’s spooky spoof is another’s tasteless attack: A new Republican mailer PhotoShops U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum’s face onto that of a chainsaw killer. And it’s a holiday hook that’s not without serious hazards — as a business group learned six years ago when it sent a mailer that seemed merely macabre one day but appeared to mock the dead the next.

That 2002 mailer featured on one side a picture of a large, leaning gravestone with the raised letters “R.I.P.” glowing in the lurid, unearthly green light of a full moon, while in the background shadows (for good measure) rested on an open stone coffin. On the other side was the message:

Paul Wellstone not only wants to tax you and your business to death … he wants to tax you in the hereafter. Paul Wellstone wants more of your money because he wants to spend more of your money. … But what is even more shocking is that Paul Wellstone voted to tax you when you are dead. That’s right, Paul Wellstone voted to keep the Death Tax, so that even when you are dead a large portion of your business will still be taxed. … Paul Wellstone’s taxes can reach you even in the grave. Tell Paul Wellstone His Votes Are Killing You. [emphasis in original]

Produced by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the ad began to arrive in Minnesota mailboxes the day Wellstone’s plane crashed in northern Minnesota. The NFIB claimed it was able to pull two-thirds of the 30,000 fliers from the post office before delivery and issued an apology by press release and an explanation to its members. Robo-calls of remorse are said to have been made to households on the mailing list as well. (My wife got a flyer at work but no call.)

Today the NFIB is back at it, spending more than a half million dollars to attack Franken in his run for Wellstone’s former Senate seat. Meanwhile, a TV spot from the Tennessee Democratic Party proves that attack ads in the gore genre aren’t limited to Republican purview. The spot depicts Republican state Senate candidate in a chain-saw killer context akin to McCollum’s. With candidates feeling few qualms about creating campaign ads with themes even as emotionally charged as cancer, Halloween and its attendant gore will likely remain an easy mark for gasps and grins — whatever the occasional risk to political life and limb.