NEW YORK – With one week to the election, the Democrat challenging Michael Bloomberg (search) for mayor is launching a rare animated political ad spoofing the mayor in the style of the wildly popular JibJab Internet parodies.
In the ad, a caricature of Bloomberg flashes a wad of cash at President Bush riding through an oil field on a horse as a country singer twangs in the background: "And if you're ever hurtin', I'll run right to your side."
Jonathan Prince, creator of Democratic candidate Fernando Ferrer's (search) ad, said they used animation because it is difficult to visually link Bloomberg with Bush in any other way.
"There's not tons of footage of Bush and Bloomberg together, so how else would you dramatize their relationship?" he said.
The 30-second spot is reminiscent of the animated Internet short created by Santa Monica-based JibJab Media (search) during last year's presidential campaign that parodied Bush and John Kerry (search) to Woody Guthrie's (search) "This Land is Your Land."
Ferrer's campaign said the ad, airing in the final week before the election, is supposed to highlight Bloomberg's $7 million donation from his personal fortune to the committee that hosted the 2004 GOP presidential convention in New York.
Bloomberg campaign spokesman Stu Loeser said the mayor gave his money to a nonpartisan, nonprofit host committee which held a convention that was a "shot in the arm to our economy and tourism industry with a $255 million impact, and gave us a chance to show how far the city had come since 9/11."
Bloomberg has spent more than $63 million to win a second term, a large chunk of that on advertising. Ferrer's campaign has spent $7.6 million.
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