The Greatest Ever Political Ad That Helped Scott Colom Win Mississippi - Newsweek

Democrat Scott Colom’s “pick another protein” ad is being hailed as one of the most brilliant spots ever created for a political campaign, receiving credit for his stunning triumph over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely contested Senate race.

Colom’s win, which further pads Democrats' Senate majority, is a monumental shift for a state that has been controlled by white conservatives for generations. The last time Mississippi chose a new Democratic senator was 1947, and Colom, a local prosecutor, is the state’s first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.

“All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this,” he told supporters at his victory rally on Wednesday night. “I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters.”

He spoke behind a sign that said "Picked Another Senator," a reference to the hugely successful ad.

Democratic Party leaders have hailed Colom’s victory, with Senator Chuck Schumer saying Colom “ran the campaign of a lifetime and re-imagined what’s possible for Democrats in the South.” He "proved the polls, the pundits, and the prognosticators wrong at every turn," Schumer wrote on X.

Few had predicted the race would even be competitive, with polls and forecasters favoring Hyde-Smith. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the race as “solid Republican” for much of the cycle before adjusting to “likely Republican” in late October.

But while Schumer thought Mississippi could be in play this year, his Senate Majority PAC didn't pour money into the race until the final stretch, long after Black Democrats led by Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi had urged party leaders and donors to view the deep-red state as winnable and invest in the race.

The race drew national attention only after Colom released a slick and funny ad in mid-October that honed in on the affordability crisis, an issue that brought down Republicans across the map in the midterms.

The 28-second spot revived comments Hyde-Smith made earlier this year, where she dismissed high beef prices by saying Mississippians have “so many proteins to choose from.”

In the ad, several incredulous Mississippians firmly reject the idea of picking another protein, telling the camera they’d rather “pick another senator instead.”

The ad went massively viral, with one man’s delivery of a line in a distinctly Southern drawl becoming a particularly iconic moment.

“Pick another protein? Sheee-it, I’d rather pick another senator instead,” he says.

Ryan Sayles, who directed and edited the ad, said he brought “Mississippi culture” to the spot, referencing that line in particular.

“Shooting the video, he was like, ‘Pick another protein? S***, I’d rather pick another senator,’” Sayles told Crooked Media. “I was like, ‘no no no, we gotta drag that part out.’”

Russ Hudson, the Army veteran who took on the role after his father balked at having to utter an expletive on camera, told The New York Times that he delivered the line “like a Mississippian would.” He’s now become an unexpected sensation in the state, and says he is regularly stopped and asked to repeat the line.

Sayles, who said Colom’s campaign is the first he’s worked on, attributed the ad’s success largely to how it focused on voters and the issues that matter to them. That’s something Colom did throughout the campaign, he said.

"I think the biggest thing was centering the voters, letting them say how they feel, and I think that's why it worked so well,” Sayles said.

“If you really look at it, Scott was in the ad for about five seconds, and that's our biggest ad…. because it really wasn't about him, it was about Mississippi. And I think that was what made that ad so powerful. It was just like, you're really capturing how people are feeling right now.”

Newsweek has contacted Sayles for further comment via social media.

The day after Election Day, Colom credited the ad as a game-changing moment for his campaign, and said Sayles should be considered “the break-out star of this cycle.”

The Mississippi race was not considered a must-win for Democrats to retake control of the Senate, and it wasn't until the final stretch of the cycle that Democrats began efforts to boost Colom in earnest.

Not long after the ad debuted, Senate Majority PAC, the super political action committee aimed at boosting Democratic Senate candidates, announced it would launch a $1.2 million ad campaign in the race. The super PAC later invested another $1 million.

“It is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels,” the PAC’s spokesperson Lauren French told The Hill at the time.

Former President Barack Obama endorsed Colom in a campaign ad on October 12. Ten days later, former Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with Colom at a high school.

And in a sign that Republicans were wary of losses even in deep-red states, President Donald Trump made a late-October stop in Mississippi to stump for Hyde-Smith.

"I'm here because Cindy's doing great, but I just got to make sure. I can't take a chance," Trump told the crowd at the rally on October 26.

For some, Colom’s “pick another protein” ad is the best of the midterms cycle, if not all time.

"If he wins, this has to go down as one of the best political ads of all time,” political forecaster Nate Silver wrote on X before the race was called.

After Colom's win, progressive YouTuber Jack Cocchiarella said it is “officially the greatest political ad in American history.”

Political experts told Newsweek that it's difficult to assess the impact of any particular ad on a race, but that in a close contest, anything that causes even a small shift in voter sentiment can prove consequential.

"No doubt its virality helped move the needle with some voters, and in a race this close, it only takes a little movement to make a difference," Marvin King, an associate professor at the University of Mississippi who focuses on African American politics, told Newsweek.

Alex Coppock, an associate professor of political science at Northwestern University who has researched the impact of digital advertising on voter turnout, said the ad likely reached more voters than others.

"The ad is funny, uses profanity in an authentic way, has memorable alliteration and wordplay, so I bet that it garnered above average attention," Coppock told Newsweek.

"This ad might have made a difference in such an extremely tight race, especially if it reached many people and stuck in their minds because it was so clever,” he said.

Brian Shoup, a professor of political science at Mississippi State University, told Newsweek that the ad "helped nationalize this race in a way that brought significant viral attention to Colom's campaign.”

He said: "Prior to the fall, Colom's campaign wasn't receiving as much support from Democratic-aligned PACs and organizations, something that Mississippi Democratic leaders have long complained about.

”The ad, by going viral, definitely helped his campaign attract more financial support."