Hoekstra Scrubs Controversial Super Bowl Ad From Sites

It took ESPN 35 minutes to remove its controversial “Chink in the Armor” headline about Jeremy Lin. It took Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra a lot longer to remove a political ad that stirred up a similar backlash.

Two weeks after it first aired in Michigan during the Super Bowl, Hoekstra removed the controversial political ad that featured an Asian woman speaking in accented English. The ad was “wiped from its YouTube channel, stricken from its Facebook page and there’s no mention of it on the campaign website,” according to Politico.com.

Hoekstra’s campaign didn’t offer an explanation for the move, but it’s possible that after weeks of criticism, Hoekstra finally got the public’s message. Experts who spoke to Big Think say not only is the ad overtly racist, but it is also inaccurate, as it blames globalization and China for the economic problems in the United States. While Americans may be anxious about the global economy, this issue is much more complex.

“The ad is targeted at the least informed, least sophisticated, ugliest variety of those anxieties,” said Susan Jakes, an Arthur Ross Fellow at Asia Society.

Robert Kapp, China business consultant, calls the attacks the “impassioned cries” of a political party that is in trouble.

The embedded video from a previous post on Big Think is gone, but there is another copy on YouTube in case you missed it.

Check out the story and screenshots on Politico.com.