The first viral political ad of the election season

Mike Huckabee may not have the same campaign warchest as other, better-known presidential contenders, but he obviously has some pretty smart campaign handlers on board who understand how to optimize Huckabee’s message for the Internet. Check out this “Chuck Norris Approved” ad for Mike Huckabee – it already has received more than 1.3 million page views, been commented on more than 7,000 times and been favorited more than 4,000 times. According to the curator of the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, this ad is the “best so far” of the presidential election season:

“The ad plays on an online phenomenon that attributes increasingly bizarre superpowers to Mr. Norris. Mixing serious politics with humor, the spot showcases Mr. Norris’s endorsement of Mr. Huckabee’s positions while also suggesting the candidate is hip enough to get an Internet in-joke…”

In an era of CNN/YouTube political debates, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of these types of ads. 

UPDATE: Actually, colleagues inform me that the “I Got a Crush… on Obama” video was unofficially the first viral political video of the presidential election season…

[video: Chuck Norris endorses Mike Huckabee]