Seven weeks from today, Thomas Ravenel wants you to give him the thumbs-up for his indie bid for the U.S. Senate. But for now, he’s got a TV ad to do it for him.
In an ad posted on YouTube today, Ravenel delivers a tried-and-true “outsider” voiceover over a slo-mo montage of smiling people giving the viewer the thumbs up. He plays it straight through out most of the ad until suddenly he asks, “Do these people even know they’re in slow motion?” Cue the laugh track.
From the time he entered the race, TV T-Rav has tried to deflect criticism that he’s unfit for public office, and so far he has run a seemingly reputable campaign with signs and campaign events and everything. However, this is a guy who served time in the federal pen and then got a bubble gum reality show and announced his petition campaign for the U.S. Senate live on Bravo.
Ravenel reportedly has other campaign ads in the can as well, according to a post yesterday on FitsNews.com that has since been taken down. Today’s spot isn’t the jokey ad Folks mentioned on Monday featuring T-Rav and his Southern Charm co-star Whitney Sudler-Smith scoping out women (sounds hilarious). And it’s not the apparently folksy family ad Sic Willie said was in the hopper ready to be released.
Before Southern Charm, Folks’ site was the go-to place for the latest T-Rav news, and Folks appeared in several episodes of the show as Ravenel’s political confidante. But reports in August first indicated that Ravenel had hired a Bravo-recruited campaign manager to guide his Senate run. Meanwhile Southern Charm producer Sudler-Smith posted a tweet today saying that he and a L.A. editor handled production of the new ad. Together, these two tidbits may help explain some of the confusion over which ad would drop this week. As it stands now, it appears that T-Rav’s outsider campaign may be in the hands of Hollywood.
Southern Charm is currently filming its second season in Charleston, but an air date has not been released. Election day is November 4.
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