Running for president is really expensive — just ask Donald Trump.
Every candidate has to run ads, but those spots are often more memorable for being really odd than working to help get their candidates elected. Remember Herman Cain’s smoking man and Carly Fiorina’s demon sheep?
Anyway, Gary Johnson is running for president on the Libertarian Party or Anarchist Anti-Government Pothead ticket. SPOILER: he isn’t going to win. He’s not even going to come anywhere close to something vaguely resembling a victory.
He’s also quite cheap and unoriginal — at least according to this case study by Tampa agency Spark, which allegedly created a spec campaign that his operation proceeded to steal. The music is very upbeat.
According to the site, Spark created some spec work out of the good of their own hearts before sending it to Johnson, who promptly put it to work in his own campaign.
Spark then used the opportunity to tell him how to do it better, writing: “While your interpretation of our campaign was close, we wanted to create this style guide to help you more accurately execute it.”
Here’s some would-be signage.
We are skeptical of this story, especially since the agency is now using the efforts it allegedly made on Johnson’s behalf to promote its own services.
But the fake campaign is still a lot better than the candidate’s team could do. Not that this matters; he’s currently polling around 7% and looks to win less than half of one electoral vote in November.