Kennedy Super Bowl Ad an Overwhelming Success, Despite Media Spin

By The Kennedy Beacon

“Loved the Kennedy ad! Love the throwback stuff,” wrote former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on X, minutes after an ad promoting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president was broadcast during the Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

George Behizy similarly wrote on X: “RFK Jr.’s Super Bowl ad is old school & brilliant. Many more normies will be voting for RFK over Joe Biden.”

“I love that it wasn’t smearing other candidates. Very refreshing!” wrote Dawn Michelle, also on X.

As The Hill noted, web searches for “RFK” skyrocketed after the ad aired, according to Google Trends, “with terms related to the candidate getting as much as 100 times as many searches as average.”

Stefanie Spear, press secretary for Team Kennedy, told ABC News: “We are pleasantly surprised and grateful to the American Values PAC for running an ad during the Super Bowl where more than 100 million Americans got to see that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is running as an independent candidate for President of the United States.”

But not everyone was so grateful or positive.

Some in the media promoted tired lines of attack against Kennedy and the ad – which was produced, without the presidential candidate’s knowledge or input, by American Values 2024, the super PAC which funds The Kennedy Beacon. 

The New York Times suggested that the ad, a reboot of a black-and-white, 1960 campaign ad for John F. Kennedy, RFK Jr.’s uncle, traded in on his famous uncle’s name and that this had angered family members. 

“Mr. Kennedy has invoked his storied political family and its legacy throughout his candidacy,” writes the ‘paper of record.’ “But many of his relatives have denounced him.” The Times proceeds to quote Bobby Shriver, a nephew of John F. Kennedy, writing on X. “My cousin’s Super Bowl ad used our uncle’s faces – and my Mother’s. She would be appalled by his deadly health care views. Respect for science, vaccines, & health care equity were in her DNA.” And his brother Mark Shriver wrote in agreement.

At the end of its article, the Times noted that Kennedy addressed family members on X late Sunday: “I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain. The ad was created and aired by the American Values Super PAC without any involvement or approval from my campaign. FEC rules prohibit Super PACs from consulting with me or my staff. I love you all. God bless you.”

As in past articles, the Times failed to quote or mention a single Kennedy who does support RFK Jr. (there are many, as The Kennedy Beacon has reported), and it and other media have engaged in an incessant barrage of attacks, including on Kennedy’s evidence-based vaccine skepticism; his findings about what really happened in Wuhan; his challenging of the official narrative regarding the assassinations of his uncle and father; and his push-back against the Democratic Party for making it impossible for him to get a fair shake in the party of his uncle and father. 

All of these form what Big Media calls Kennedy’s conspiracy theories, that make him a lunatic voters should avoid at all costs. (The Times’ latest dig: “For nearly two decades, Mr. Kennedy has promoted unsubstantiated theories about vaccines and other matters.”)

As The Kennedy Beacon has pointed out, the Times also commissioned a hit piece on RFK Jr.’s personal finances, which was notable for its lack of substance and the number of its own readers who disagreed with its findings.

In its Super Bowl coverage, with hardly a counter-quotation, the Times cites the Democratic National Committee’s latest anti-Kennedy pit bull, Alex Floyd, a spokesman for the DNC: “It’s fitting that the first national ad promoting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy was bought and paid for by Donald Trump’s largest donor this cycle. R.F.K. Jr. is nothing more than a Trump stalking horse in this race.”

There is barely a critical eye in Big Media toward the large sums of money behind the DNC machine, which in the last week has kicked into full attack mode against RFK Jr. and anyone who appears to challenge Biden.

The 30-second spot in question is a slick reboot of a longer ad used during John F. Kennedy’s run for president. Using the same catchy “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy…” song as the original two-minute ad, the new version swaps in images of RFK Jr. 

One of the old lyrics takes on new meaning: “Do you want a man for president who’s seasoned through and through – but not so doggone seasoned that he won’t try something new? A man who’s old enough to know and young enough to do?” In the current election cycle, with President Biden’s age, 81, a topic of concern to many on both the right and left, the line resonates.

The ad cost an estimated $7 million, according to Tony Lyons, AV24 super PAC co-chair. Tallies are still being confirmed, but early estimates are that this year’s Super Bowl drew more than 100 million viewers.

“The panicked DC power brokers are working overtime to keep Kennedy off the ballot because they know he can and will end their culture of greed and corruption,” Lyons said in a statement, republished in The Hill and elsewhere. “They offer us soaring inflation, forever wars, and chronic disease.”

Lyons continued: “RFK Jr. offers us real change along with freedom, trust and hope. Like his uncle and his father, Kennedy is a corruption-fighter, and it’s no wonder the [Democratic National Committee] is trying every old trick and inventing new tricks to stop him. The public sees through it all and won’t stand for it.”