WATCH: Secret Service Drops a Super Bowl Ad Directed By Michael Bay — Complete With Photo of Assassination Attempt on Trump
The US Secret Service dropped a Super Bowl hiring ad — just hours before kickoff Sunday — that featured an image of President Donald Trump bloodied after surviving an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania last summer.
The 60-second spot, which features images of numerous presidents targeted by assassins or would-be assassins, was directed by Michael Bay, CNN reported.
In the ad, a voice-over artist states, “America was founded on an idea of freedom. Americans always step forward in time of need, throughout our short but powerful history.”
Images of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Trump are shown – including an image of Trump bleeding from the ear last July.
The ad’s voiceover artist adds, “Our heroes are humble. They have an inner pride to keep this idea alive. Protectors are born, they’re not made. America’s Secret Service protecting this Super Bowl is asking a few more to step forward.”
CNN reported on the ad:
The ad cost an estimated $2 million for the Secret Service to produce, according to two sources familiar with the project — a hefty price tag that comes amid massive budget cuts and layoffs at other government agencies.
One source told CNN the estimated $2 million budget is about double what was spent on previous Secret Service recruiting ads.
[…]
The ad’s purpose of recruitment comes at a crucial time, as the Secret Service has been wracked with low morale, burnout, staffing and retention issues. The thrust of the ad showcases the Secret Service’s role in protecting the nation’s leaders and points out the very game the audience is attending is secured by the agency, according to sources familiar with the ad.
But it does feature footage that could be seen to highlight some of the agency’s most visible failures, including images of assassinated presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, as well as the July assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, and footage of former President Ronald Reagan, who was shot and wounded in 1981.
An agency spokesperson told CNN on behalf of Secret Service Director Sean Curran that he wanted to empower his “team to identify a novel and expedient approach that leveraged one of the most recognizable Directors to produce a representation of the men and women behind the Secret Service within nine days while ensuring compliance with requisite rules.”
With Super Bowl ads costing an estimated $8 million this year, the Secret Service ad will air on the big screen inside the New Orleans Superdome and the time was donated – saving the agency a hefty fee.
Watch above via the US Secret Service.
