How many of you remember the “talking cow” ad Terry Branstad ran late in his 1994 race against Bonnie Campbell? “Don’t gamble with Campbell,” the talking cow said. The ad was produced by Mike Murphy.
Branstad, for his 2010 campaign, has a new ad on the airwaves. It takes the lyrics of the 1961 Jimmy Dean song, “Big Bad John,” and inserts words critical of the current governor, Chet Culver. “Big bad debt” is the repeated line.
Branstad’s not the first, nor will he be the last political candidate to use this song. For example, Senator John Cornyn of Texas used it in 2008. (Jimmy Dean died this past June at the age of 81. The LA Times obituary for Dean says he wrote “Big Bad John” on a 90-minute airplane flight from New York to Tennesee.)
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
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