Political Ads Target Sports Fans

As first primaries near, TV ad blitz rolls out in key states

(NEWSER) - With less than 10 weeks to go until Republican primary voting, the campaign for the GOP nomination is stepping up to a whole new level—the level where you can't turn on your TV without hearing someone utter, "I approve this message." The first round of candidate debates are over and the next not coming until mid-November, so New Hampshire, Iowa, and other early voting states are getting their first multimillion-dollar ad blitzes, reports the Wall Street Journal . More»

Ad citing former GOP senator's support 'backhanded,' he says

(AP) - The Democratic National Committee is canceling a television ad touting GOP support for health care reform after protests from one of the Republicans mentioned, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Dole is quoted saying: "I want this to pass...We've got to do something." The former Kansas senator told ABC that he complained about the ad to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who told the DNC to kill the ad. More»

(NEWSER) - Steve McNair’s death was a grisly illustration of the nightmare that retirement can be for pro athletes, writes former outfielder Doug Glanville in the New York Times. Though players are often told they’ll be set for life, “the pleasure of a hammock at age 35 only lasts so long.” McNair, like so many others, was searching for something, and fatally looked outside his marriage to find it. More»

(NEWSER) - With Brett Favre mulling yet another unretirement, Will Leitch of New York magazine looks back on the worst unretirements in sports history. They range from cringe-worthy to incomparably cringe-worthy:

• Ricky Williams: How many drug tests can one man fail?
• Lance Armstrong: "It’s difficult to come up with a better final chapter than winning your seventh Tour after overcoming cancer and thoroughly infuriating the French by evading all their attempts to bust you as a drug cheat."

(NEWSER) - A mysterious bald audience member turning up on various live Fox broadcasts is a viral marketing plant—as well as an actor on the show he’s subtly promoting. Michael Cerveris, in character as “The Observer” from the sci-fi drama Fringe, has so far been spotted, well, observing football, auto racing, and American Idol, reports Variety. Even better, staffers refer to the sub rosa campaign as “Where’s Baldo?” More»