In the name of the conservative cause, the Koch brothers have made a name for themselves by attacking opposition candidates via their Super PAC, Americans for Prosperity, with exceedingly hyperbolic political ads. This isn’t unusual—scare-tactic-driven campaigns are status quo in the post-Citizens United world. But they are only getting more absurd and overstated.
And so we couldn’t help but feel like we found a lost ad from the group recently when we saw the bombastic trailer for next summer’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The Clark Kent fear-mongering felt not too dissimilar from past portrayals of our current commander in chief in dark-money ads. Casting President Obama as the orphaned alien blessed with superpowers capable of destroying planet Earth (and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as something much, much worse) did not seem entirely outside of the Koch brothers’ wheelhouse.
In our own custom attack ad above, we did just that, with untouched audio from the Superman v Batman trailer. The video proves that the only things more shamelessly over-the-top than blockbuster superhero movies are dark-money campaign ads. Here’s to 2016!
Update, May 5, 2015: This post has been updated for clarity.
