bad ideas

College Republicans Dumb Down Voting So Young Women Can Understand It

Today, the College Republican National Committee debuted a new ad as part of a nearly $1 million campaign it’s launching across 16 states to support GOP political candidates. The spot, created by an organization co-chaired by a white guy from Arkansas named Skot, is just a teensy bit tone-deaf.

The 60-second ad is modeled after the long-running TLC reality show Say Yes to the Dress, where brides-to-be engage in emotional turf wars with their families (and themselves) while trying on wedding gowns that cost more than a down payment on a house. But in the CRNC’s spoof, the dresses are Florida governor Rick Scott and his opponent in this fall’s election, Charlie Crist.

The ads are meant to pander to young voters by capturing their attention in a “culturally relevant way,” which in this example means recasting tired tropes in a political context so that the presumably dumb millennial women who watch TLC’s wedding shows will, like, totally vote for Rick Scott. Young people — especially women, since the viewership of Say Yes to the Dress is overwhelmingly female — simply cannot figure out who to vote for unless it’s filtered through reality show taglines. (“I fought too hard for this Zip code’s voters to go home now.”)

Lest you cry “sexism,” the CRNC already has a response prepped:

Oh, well, if that’s the case 

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College GOP Debuts New Ad: Say Yes to Rick Scott