RALEIGH, N.C. — State Sen. Tamara Barringer, R-Wake, has an ad out that accuses her opponent of disrespecting women and his company of backing an esthetic that promotes domestic violence.
The ad targets Democrat Sam Searcy, largely because of a music video in which his Durham distillery's vodka line appeared as part of a product-placement deal. The ad has been running on cable for about a week and on network television since Monday.
The ad: Barringer looks at the camera and says:
"Sadly, some still act like it's a man's world, like Sam Searcy. He funds the campaign of a man who thinks sexual harassment only happens when we say no and the man continues. More troubling, Sam Searcy's company promotes their product in videos that portray women as sex objects and encourages domestic violence. A video his leadership said was a perfect match for his company. Sadly, Sam Searcy puts politics and profits first and respect for women last."
The ad ends with a picture of Searcy under a red filter and this text: "Sam Searcy, politics & profits first, respect for women last."
Questions: There are several worth asking, but the most serious issues here boil down to whether Searcy's company promoted its product in videos that encourage domestic violence and whether he puts "respect for women last."
The backup: The ad hangs on two facts: Searcy gave state Rep. Duane Hall, D-Wake, who was later accused of sexual harassment, a $1,000 campaign donation, and Searcy's distillery, Greybeard, had its "Bedlam" vodka featured in a Jason Derulo video last year for the song "If I'm Lucky."
The
music video (warning: adult content) is a racy mini movie, starring Derulo and his lover as a pair of gangsters who hole up in a motel room with stacks of cash. The woman is repeatedly shown in her underwear. They argue, she slaps him, they rob, they use weapons in their seduction and, after they die, Derulo comes back from the dead.
"I think it's a montage of abuse, sexuality gone bad and domestic violence," Barringer said. "Does (Searcy) plan to bring that set of values to the North Carolina General Assembly?"
The pushback: Searcy called the suggestion that he, or his company, are OK with domestic violence "preposterous."
"It's a deflection," he said. "She doesn't want to talk about underfunding schools. She doesn't want to talk about not expanding Medicaid."
Searcy said Warner Brothers reached out on short notice last year about including the vodka in the video. It was a young distillery's chance to make a splash, he said.
"We jumped on the opportunity," he said.
Greybeard Chief Executive Brandon Evans
later called the video "phenomenal" and said "we could not be happier with the use of the product placement," something Barringer alludes to in her ad.
As for the Hall donation, it came in October 2017, more than four months before the sexual harassment allegations
became public knowledge. Searcy's campaign produced a letter he sent to the Hall campaign soon after the news broke, asking for a refund. The envelope came back marked refused, according to a copy Searcy's campaign provided.
Allison Dahle, who defeated Hall in the Democratic primary, said Tuesday that Searcy actively supported her campaign. His wife, Shauna Searcy, donated $500 to Dahle's campaign about a month before the primary.
The verdict: This one gets a red light on
our scale. You can't conclude that Searcy "puts respect for women last" based on what Barringer presented.
Does the Derulo video treat the woman in it as a sex object? Absolutely. And there's clearly violence in it. The couple dies in an explosion. She points a gun at him in bed. He runs a knife down her arched back. Is it the same knife she throws at a dart board next to his head? Maybe.
But to say the video "encourages domestic violence" is too much of a stretch. And to suggest that Searcy condones domestic violence or "puts respect for women last" because of the evidence at hand is a bridge too far indeed.
