Listen to Ben Carson's New Rap Ad Aimed at African-American Voters
— -- To add to Ben Carson’s unconventional and unorthodox campaign style, his campaign is launching a bit of a different advertising strategy.
Rapping.
Yes, Dr. Carson is launching a new 60-second urban radio advertisement scheduled to air Friday in eight markets.
His new $150,000 radio ad buy, called “Freedom,” will air for two weeks in Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas.
The ad, specifically targeting young black voters, uses rapper Aspiring Mogul and is interspersed with portions of Carson’s stump speech throughout the 60-second ad.
"America became a great nation early on not because it was flooded with politicians but because it was flooded with people who understood the value of personal responsibility, hard work, innovation and that’s what will get us on the right track now,” Carson says between Mogul’s rap.
“I’m very hopeful that I'm not the only one that’s willing to pick up the baton to freedom,” Carson continues. "Because freedom is not free and we must fight for it every day. Every one of us must fight for us because we are fighting for our children and the next generation."
The Carson campaign is convinced that if he gets 20 percent of the black vote, Hillary Clinton would not win if they are head to head in the general election.
The purpose of the new ad is to awaken, appeal to and motivate the urban market, specifically catering to younger black voters.
“Reaching them on a level they appreciate and follow and see if we can attract their consciousness about the election,” Carson campaign spokesman Doug Watts told ABC News. “They need to get involved and express their voice through their vote.”
It’s a break from Carson’s typically broad campaign advertisements, catering to Christians, younger families and women older than 40.
This advertising appeal is an "expressed articulation to another market, a non-traditional voting market for Republicans,” Watts said.
Most importantly, this new form of advertising allows the African-American retired neurosurgeon, 64, to communicate with these targeted black voters in what the campaign believes is their preferred style.
The campaign says “reaching out and talking to them in a language that they prefer and in a language that, and in a cultural format that they appreciate” is a way of broadening its appeal to the younger African-American vote.
“This happens to be a group that we feel pretty strongly is ready and prepared to start working for Ben Carson,” Watts said.
The campaign says it will pursue this medium and particularly this demographic aggressively, especially through the March primaries.
