Republican Illinois gubernatorial candidate
Bruce Rauner went for star power in this spot, featuring former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. (Fun fact: Ditka thought about running for U.S. Senate in 2004, before deciding that losing to Barack Obama wouldn't be so fun.) Unlike a lot of ads featuring celebrities staring at the camera and saying nice things about the candidate, Ditka and Rauner actually appear together here.
It's a strange ad indeed. The two are hanging out together in a bar, where Ditka tells Rauner how awesome he is for standing up to special interests. Rauner then weirdly starts to wonder if maybe he's been too hard on those guys. Eight seconds of silence follows as Ditka stares at him in shock, until Rauner laughingly admits he didn't know what he was thinking. Ditka then implores him to stick to the game plan.
I'm still not sure what they're going for here. Were they suggesting that while Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn takes orders from special interests, Rauner takes orders from Mike Ditka? I'll say one thing for Ditka though: He comes off a lot better in this spot than the very wooden Rauner. Ultimately Rauner won by 4 points, so maybe his campaign did have the right idea after all.