A cousin of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bobby Shriver, famous that the advert included photographs of his mom, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a sister of each the candidate’s father and the president, each of whom had been assassinated. “She can be appalled by his lethal well being care views,” Mr. Shriver wrote on X. “Respect for science, vaccines, & well being care fairness had been in her DNA.”
Mr. Kennedy apologized on X “if the Tremendous Bowl commercial prompted anybody in my household ache.” He asserted that the advert had been created by an impartial political motion committee supporting his marketing campaign with out his involvement or his marketing campaign’s approval. Even so, he pinned a hyperlink to the advert on the high of his X feed, which has 2.7 million followers.
Regardless of how a lot the advert has riled up individuals within the Kennedy world, the precise political affect of the advert, which value $7 million to run through the Tremendous Bowl, is way from clear. “The Kennedys have lengthy since handed into historical past, legend, lore and mythology,” mentioned Evan Thomas, a historian and biographer of Mr. Kennedy’s father. “Folks barely bear in mind World Battle II or the Vietnam Battle. One of many causes for my double take is, I used to be delay by it, but in addition that most individuals are barely sufficiently old to recollect.”
That mentioned, Mr. Kennedy has scored within the double-digits in lots of polls, owing in no small half to call recognition, political analysts mentioned. And Mr. Kennedy will surely profit with being seen as the newest member of this household of Democrats trying to serve the nation.
Invoice Carrick, a Democratic advisor and one-time adviser to Edward M. Kennedy, the previous senator, mentioned that the brand new commercial, which he referred to as distasteful, was notably hurtful as a result of the unique had develop into a part of Kennedy lore. It represented a turning level in how political ads had been made.