Here Are the Most Unhinged Ads From The Nearly $80,000,000 AI Slop Spree
A fake drug commercial, a show-tune parody and politicians dancing to rapper Kendrick Lamar are all part of this year's artificial intelligence-powered midterm pitch to voters.
Dylan Kresak · Oct 18, 2026 · 4 min read
A fake drug commercial, a show-tune parody and politicians dancing to rapper Kendrick Lamar are all part of this cycle’s artificial intelligence-powered midterm pitch to voters.
Campaigns and outside groups had spent nearly $80 million on at least 164 political ads made or enhanced with AI as of Sept. 4, the Wesleyan Media Project found. As the Nov. 3 Election Day approaches, AI ads have been used in key senate and governor races, and some have faced ridicule from critics online who call them “AI slop.”
‘Fake AI Fetish Videos’
Citizens for Sanity, a group advised by former Trump deputy White House counsel Gene Hamilton, put six figures behind an AI ad that turns Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico into Julie Andrews’ beloved character, Maria, from “The Sound of Music,” the Daily Caller first reported on June 9.
The AI-generated Talarico, depicted in a video posted by the Daily Caller on X, belts out new lyrics to the musical’s number “My Favorite Things” about gender transitions for minors, which is a callback to his comment that he loves “the trans children,” in an Aug. 2, 2023, interview on A Superbloom Podcast.
Months after winning the Democratic Senate nomination over Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Talarico stated on a June episode of another podcast that he opposed child sex changes.
“Boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Girls dosed with hormones til they grow mustaches. Changing the gender of all your offspring. These are a few of my favorite things,” the AI-generated Talarico sings.
“Citizens for sanity” as they make up really weird fake AI fetish videos of a man in dresses,” said one X user in response to the ad.
“Keep burning money,” Rogue DNC said on X in response to the video.
‘The Political Delusion Pill’
Republican New York gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman posted an AI-generated attack ad to X on Sept. 1 that showed incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a mock drug commercial for “delusion pills.”