WASHINGTON — Supporting a congressional campaign usually means donating money, knocking on doors and making phone calls. Rarely does it mean acting like a nudist in a television ad that will be played throughout your community.
That is, until the Kelly Kultala for Congress campaign asked exactly that from their supporters.
Kultala, a Democrat running to oust Kansas Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder, released an ad on Thursday that featured a handful of seemingly naked people urging viewers to support the Democrat in November’s election.
The people in the ad, however, are not actual nudists. They are supporters of the Kultala campaign who agreed to appear on TV with different objects in front of their naked bits.
“They are volunteers who agreed to do it because they support our campaign and our message,” said Jacob Becklund, the Kultala campaign manager. “It should also be noted that nobody was actually nude during filming.”
According to Becklund, “It was a pretty easy sell to all of our volunteers,” even though the ad — which comes with a “high five figure (cost) behind it” — will be seen on cable and broadcast in the Kansas City market starting Friday.
The (faux) nudity in the ad — titled “Naked Truth” — was a knock on Yoder, who in 2011 skinny dipped in the Sea of Galilee in Israel, a decision for which he was reprimanded by House Republicans in 2012.
“Awhile back, Congressman Yoder made news by skinny dipping on the job,” Kultala says in the ad. “But it is more shameless what he is doing to Kansas.”
The ad then features the seemingly naked volunteers citing different aspects of Yoder’s record, including that “Yoder lines the pockets of his millionaire donors with big tax cuts. And they line his, when he has pockets.”
“We thought it was a humorous hook,” Becklund said, ” to get people to pay attention to the message.”
