Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby spent $6 million on a new 60-second campaign ad during last month’s Cotton Bowl game, but it turns out he should have splurged a bit more on a continuity editor. Shelby’s spot promoted him as a conservative who’s always found time to visit his home state, with the narrator praising the senator as someone who “knows the back roads, the quickest routes.” We see plenty of shots of Shelby’s car driving across scenic Alabama, and there's even a moment where, sitting in the front seat, he gazes out the windshield. The message is clear: Shelby is a regular guy who hasn’t gone Washington.
The only problem with that message? His hair.
Kyle Whitmire of AL.com has some incredibly keen readers, and they’ve pointed out that the part in Shelby’s hair clearly changes sides between shots. When the senator steps out of what appears to be the driver’s side of his vehicle, the part is on right side of his head. However, in other segments of the ad where Shelby is interacting with people, it’s on the left side. “How?!?” you’re asking. Well, the mystery of the traveling hair is solved when the shot of Shelby leaving his car—shown at the top of this post—is reversed:
While the ad wants the viewer to think the senator drives himself from one end of the Yellowhamer State to the other, the flipped screenshot shows that Shelby is actually disembarking from the passenger side. In other words, someone else did all the driving, and the shot of Shelby exiting the passenger side is reversed so it looks like he was getting out of the driver’s seat instead. And amazingly, the ad's director didn’t even bother to recreate the scene by having Shelby re-enter and exit from the driver’s side once the car was parked. Now that's lazy.
For a longtime Republican incumbent eager to project authenticity in the face of a primary challenge, there’s almost nothing worse then being exposed as a phony. And Shelby would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling part!