What do you do if you're a small campaign running in Chicago for one of the most high-profile seats in the House of Representatives?
You go viral.
Charlie Wheelan, who is a candidate for the IL-5 seat vacated by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, has released his first campaign ad, and it's pretty clever.
View Charlie Wheelan's underwater ad
The advertisement is barely being shown on television -- under $10,000 in total ad buys, according to some sources. However, it has been picked up by a few national news outlets. Ultimately, it's a thinly veiled attempt to spark a viral craze. I guess we'll see what happens.
At the time of this writing, the video has 6,290 views on YouTube. We'll see how many it ends up with.
Ultimately, to win as an outsider, especially in Chicago, you've got to do something unique, so I commend the campaign for their modern approach.
The primary for the election is in early March. Is that enough time for an unknown to gain the widespread recognition that he needs?