Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman recreated the classic 1979 Coca-Cola advertisement featuring football legend ‘Mean’ Joe Greene in a bizarre video during his failed 2016 U.S. Senate campaign.
The original Coca-Cola advertisement began with Greene, a Pittsburgh Steelers legend, hobbling down the tunnel after a game when a child approaches him to offer a coke. Greene accepts it and tosses this child his jersey, saying, “thanks, kid.”
In an attempt to use the classic commercial and the Steelers’ popularity to appeal to Western Pennsylvania voters, the Democrat recreated the advertisement in 2016 in a low-quality video entitled “‘Mean John’ Fetterman.”
Fetterman stumbles down a hallway grabbing to the wall for support as a boy in a Steelers jersey asks him if he needs any help.
“I’m running for the U.S. Senate, kid. I need all the help I can get,” Fetterman responds.
Perplexed, the child asks, “where is your suit, and your flag pin, and your hair.”
The child then offers Fetterman a soda in a glass bottle, which the candidate accepts and chugs down as the “Have a Coke and Smile” jingle from the Greene ad plays.
“Hey, kid, catch,” the Democrat says and tosses the child a t-shirt that reads, “Trump is a Jagoff.”
“What’s a jagoff?” The boy asks.
“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” the candidate replies.
The original ad can be seen below:
Fetterman’s newly unearthed video made the rounds on Twitter Friday morning, where many users poked fun at it.
“You have to be either a Steelers fan (or a Browns fan who know this schtick) to get this,” wrote radio host Hugh Hewitt. “But I know all about Mean Joe Greene. I watched Mean Joe Greene. John Fetterman is no Mean Joe Greene.”
“This Fetterman ad feels like a fever dream,” tweeted Ashley St. Clair.
“I honestly thought this was a parody but no this is actually a John Fetterman ad,” said journalist Jack Posobiec.