I’ve made no secret of being less-than-impressed by Blanche Lincoln’s commercials, but I do have to give her a modicum of credit today. After all, at least she gets to keep hers on the air for more than a few hours.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — University of Arkansas officials said Tuesday that Republican Senate hopeful John Boozman has agreed to pull a television ad that highlights his time as a Razorback and features the football team’s stadium and logo.
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The congressman, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the November general election, had released the ad earlier in the day.
The ad includes an image of Boozman standing in front of Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville and a helmet bearing the football team’s logo. Boozman talks about the lessons he learned while playing football at the university.
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UA spokesman Steve Voorhies said officials at the Fayetteville school were surprised by the ad and were concerned that it could be viewed as an endorsement of the candidate.
“Basically, we don’t generally like to have the university used in a way that seems to be, even tacitly, endorsing a product or a person. There are also issues with the logo,” Voorhies said.
UPDATE: Talk Business has Boozman’s response, including plans to revamp the ad. According to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the ad should be back on the air by the end of the day.
UPDATED UPDATE: According to Max, as of about half an hour ago, the ad, Razorback logo and all, was airing on channels 7 and 11. Allegedly, the ad also aired on KARK earlier this afternoon. I’m bumping this back up the front page in the hopes that Ms. Huckabee Sanders (or someone else affiliated with Camp Boozman) might explain.
UPDATED UPDATE OF UPDATE: Jason Tolbert has the new ad, sans piggies. My question, though, is whether Boozman actually addressed U of A’s concerns. As noted above, U of A explained that they “don’t generally like to have the university used in a way that seems to be, even tacitly, endorsing … a person.” They then added that there were “issues with the logo.” Obviously, Boozman addressed the issues with the logo, but — and maybe it’s just me — references to “Razorback Stadium,” “Coach Frank Broyles,” and still photos of actual Arkansas Razorback game footage would seem to still, at least tacitly, suggest ties between U of A and Boozman’s campaign. In short, I don’t know that pulling the logo actually removes the larger underlying issue.