Bernie Sanders has turned to folk icons Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel for an ad set to run the week before the Iowa caucuses.
The non-traditional, soft TV spot focuses almost exclusively on idyllic shots of Americans in different everyday scenes and supporters at Sanders’ rallies.
Simon & Garfunkel’s “America,” a song about a young couple hitchhiking across the county, carries the 60-second ad. It isn’t until the end that Sanders’ voice says he approves the message.
“They’ve all come to look for America,” the folk duo sing in the ad over shots of people working in fields and organizers firing up Sanders fans.
This ad will start running in Iowa on Friday and another, slightly different ad, will air in New Hampshire.
Sanders’ campaign highlighted that the Vermont senator, who months ago was considered a long-shot candidate, has long intended to make the campaign about more than himself.
“This campaign is not about me. It is not about Hillary Clinton or any other candidate,” Sanders said in the statement. “This campaign is about you, your kids and your parents. It is about creating a political movement of millions of people who stand up and loudly proclaim that this nation belongs to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires.”
Tad Devine, Sanders’ top strategist, would not disclose the size of the ad buy, but said it was “toe-to-toe with Clinton.”
“It’s a big part of our closing advertising campaign,” Devine said. “We will probably have another spot as well before the end in Iowa and New Hampshire.”
Michael Briggs, Sanders’ spokesman, said Thursday “the use of the song was properly licensed.”