News

New Breitbart Ad Campaign Is Sexist (And Strange)

by L. Turner

Conservative news-slash-opinion website Breitbart.com debuted its new California site Monday, with an ad campaign so shocking that even the artist who created it said he was surprised the company went with his art. The site, created by the late conservative publisher and commentator Andrew Breitbart, is under fire for using a poster of Nancy Pelosi's head superimposed on Miley Cyrus' twerking body — all pictured underneath an image of Jerry Brown's head on Arnold Schwarzenegger's body.

(Take a moment here and reflect on the meeting that spawned this campaign. Somebody saw that art and thought, "Good idea. Let's run with this.")

The conservative artist who created the images, Sabo, said on Facebook that he was surprised Breitbart published the images.

I WAS SHOCKED THAT THEY WENT WITH WHAT I DREW UP BECAUSE THE POSTERS ARE EDGY AS HELL.

We get it, Sabo. You are super edgy. Do you really need to shout?

If you look at pictures from the Video Music Awards that spawned a thousand mentions of the word "twerk," you can tell Sabo used Miley's body for the composite. We'd know that pale flesh-colored two-piece anywhere.

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Democrats are not exactly happy with the campaign, which also featured a picture of the deceased Breitbart skateboarding. This in addition to posters depicting Mark Zuckerberg with a pair of buoyant breasts, and Piers Morgan jumping over a border fence.

Nancy Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement that the Pelosi ad is "foul, offensive, and disrespectful to all women," continuing:

It is a disgusting new low and would be reprehensible against any woman – regardless of party. It’s no wonder the Republicans are having problems appealing to women. If GOP leaders are serious about their rebrand, then both their elected and Party leadership should condemn this outrageous behavior, call on Breitbart News to immediately remove the ad, and not continue to use this website as a forum for their views.

The Twitterverse responded with the usual combo of shock, criticism and snark:

Republicans claimed that Dems were overreacting, obviously.

At least one person came out looking cool, for perhaps the first time in, you know, ever: Ted Cruz. Not so shockingly, Cruz seemed pretty pumped about Sabo's characterization, which pictured his head on a ripped, tatted body with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Just one correction, he noted on Twitter: