Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton released another artificial intelligence-generated campaign ad Friday, continuing to borrow from the viral playbook popularized by former Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt.
The one-minute, 40-second spot opens with soldiers dragging weary, working-class Californians into a gladiator-style arena, where they are forced to confront “The Machine” — the towering robot first introduced in Hilton’s AI ad on Thursday as a symbol of the state’s political establishment.
As the reluctant fighters are marched into the arena, they beg for relief while delivering satirical jabs at familiar complaints about California’s soaring cost of living.
“Please, I just want to be able to afford a tank of gas so I can drive to work and feed my family,” one man says in the ad.
Another woman pleads, “Me and my husband just want to buy a home together.”
A king then answers, “You can have all the gas you want, but first you must defeat the California machine,” before adding that “the machine doesn’t give a damn about you or your family.”
The ad’s battle sequence shows the robot charging at the civilians and unleashing a ring of fire around them.
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“Uh oh, another wildfire,” an aristocrat jokes, a pointed reference to California’s long-running struggles with destructive fires.
Hilton enters the scene, wearing a gladiator-like uniform. Just as the Machine is about to take out a woman, Hilton in the ad rushes in and knocks it out with one blow from his shield. The crowd gasps.
“Enough is enough,” Hilton declares. “You shouldn’t have to fight for your life just to fill your tank, keep the lights on, and put a roof over your family’s head… Enough is enough!”
The ad ends with the crowd repeating that slogan.
Hilton faces an uphill battle trying to beat Democrat Xavier Becerra in the governor’s race, as he trails badly in polls.
Much of the messaging of his campaigning has been trying to appeal to voters — even Democrats — tired of the status quo.
The Becerra campaign has dismissed Hilton’s new AI ads.
“Force-feeding voters AI slop didn’t play out well for Spencer, and it won’t work for Steve,“ Jonathan Underland, Becerra’s spokesperson, told The Post.
