Pop culture and politics, unite! A Georgia congressional campaign has used culture smarts and the candidate’s business background to produce one of the catchier advertisements of the 2014 election cycle to date.
Mike Collins, running as a Republican in the state’s 10th congressional district, operates the family trucking business Collins Industries, Inc., based in Jackson. In light of his association with the industry, the candidate starred in a campaign ad that parodies Jean-Claude Van Damme’s ‘epic’ Volvo commercial, in which the action star performs an extreme leg split in-between two moving semi trucks.
“What you see is a small businessman confronted with Obamacare: a disastrous government plan that defies the laws of the market, and a mindset that government knows better,” Collins says in a voiceover.
In the original Van Damme ad, the actor says, “What you see is a body crafted to perfection, a pair of legs engineered to defy the laws of physics, and a mindset to master the most epic of splits.”
10 points for creativity; let’s call it 4.5 for flexibility.
Collins is the son of former Rep. Mac Collins, also a Georgian and a Republican. He is running to replace current Rep. Paul Broun, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
