Kamala Harris has turned heads with her latest campaign ad targeting the love lives of black men.
The digital ads, which run on Snapchat and Instagram, use dating game-style videos to persuade young people to vote.
In the ad, a man can be seen approaching a group of women holding balloons and asking him about his income, his height, and whether he exercises.
After receiving seemingly favorable responses, one asks if they have a “plan for voting.”
“Uh, I didn’t plan that,” the man replies before all the women pop their balloons.
Kamala Harris has turned heads with her latest campaign ad targeting the love lives of black men.
The digital ads run on Snapchat and Instagram and use dating game-style videos to persuade young people to vote.
A caption on the screen reads: “Don’t let yourself get blown up.” Vote’ with a message that Harris paid for the ad for president.’
The clip has been broadcast at universities, including those in the battleground state of Arizona.
However, it has been met with online ridicule and some confusion after it emerged that 65 per cent of ad spending was directed at women, according to data from Meta.
‘Wow. I don’t know what to say. Desperate screams,’ wrote one person in X.
“This is what a failed campaign looks like,” added another.
“It’s hard to describe how embarrassing Kamala is, but I’ll do my best,” one person said. ‘What man would see this and be convinced to vote for Kamala Harris?’
“It reeks of desperation,” a fourth person wrote.
Harris is struggling to secure support among male voters, the New York Times recently revealed, as she trails all male voters by 11 points.
Harris’s support among young men has lagged behind Trump’s, and support among Hispanic and Black men is also lower than expected.
Many online criticized the ads, which simply encourage people to vote, calling them “desperate.”
The ad shows women holding balloons talking to a potential suitor about her salary, height and gym habits before popping her balloons when they discover she doesn’t plan to vote.
She’s even performing relatively poorly with black and Hispanic men, who might have been expected to overwhelmingly support her.
The situation led former President Barack Obama to accuse black male voters who refuse to support Kamala Harris of sexism.
The former president was at a campaign office in Pittsburgh to thank volunteers, but instead gave them a lecture, saying he wanted to “tell some truths.”
Obama said he was responding to reports on the ground that there was less enthusiasm for Harris than for his own candidacy and that some black men were considering sitting out the election.