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Mockery for the win: Mamdani ad skewers billionaires with a dramatic reading of a NYT article [1]
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Date: 2025-09-11
On October 23, 2024, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani announced his candidacy for New York City Mayor. He was unknown to most. But Mamdani had a message and presence that resonated with New Yorkers. He rose from poll-lagging obscurity to victory in the Democratic mayoral primary — beating Andrew Cuomo the state’s disgraced ex-governor by 13% in the final round. He is now the favorite to win in November’s general election.
This likely outcome is not good news for Manhattan’s financial elite.
As summer wound down in the Hamptons — New York’s playground for the absurdly wealthy — the New York Times reported, in a piece titled: “ How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor? ” how billionaires are panicking at Mamdani’s rise.
Madami’s campaign quickly seized on the article to highlight the 1%'s mounting anxiety at a dreadful reality: the city’s next mayor, a young, left-wing, political iconoclast, would not be a subservient guardian of billionaire portfolios.
In a stroke of marketing genius, they created a campaign ad (video below) using nothing more than the language of the NYT article to demonstrate how out-of-touch both the very rich and their preferred candidate are.
The ad features Morgan Spector, an actor of similar age and mien as Mamdani, dressed in antiquated clothes, seated in a candlelit study crammed with books. He delivers his lines in the reverential tone of a Masterpiece Theatre host as violins play chamber music.
The narrator begins with a brief description of the community known for its multimillion-dollar homes and first-world irritations. He talks of the residents’ existential dread of the barbarian at their gilded gates. Even the most expensive comfort food, he notes, has failed to soothe their nerves:
“August in the Hamptons: Ocean breezes. Oversubscribed Tracy Anderson* classes. Parking woes. And this year, with a New York City mayoral election looming in the fall, a freakout that the most sumptuous of summer staples hasn’t soothed. Even overpriced lobster salad can’t seem to make people out here feel better.”
(*The Tracy Anderson Method is a fitness concern. In-person membership costs $900 a month on top of a $1,500 initiation fee.)
The ad then poses the central question: can anyone rid the monied class of their troublesome antagonist? The candidates are the current Democratic Mayor, the legally challenged Eric Adams — who, after ducking the Democratic primary, is running as an independent. Curtis Sliwa , founder of the Guardian Angels, the Republican candidate. And the plutocrat-loving primary loser Cuomo, who is also running as an independent.
“Everyone is talking about it, all the time. What they are talking about, for the most part, is whether anyone — specifically former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo [he pronounces it Kuuuh-woe-mo’] or Mayor Eric Adams — can beat the democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani. In June, he dared to say on Meet the Press, “I don’t think we should have billionaires … “
The narrator pauses, takes a swig of brandy, and reports on the psychological torment of these poor rich people:
“The Hamptons is basically in group therapy about the mayoral race. In other words the plutocrats are panicking.”
From there, the ad skewers Cuomo’s hypocrisy. The would-be “man of the people” prefers to suck up to the big bucks, 90 miles and a universe away from the gritty city he would govern. He trawls for cash at Hamptons fundraisers — no politicking in neighborhood restaurants or working-class bars for this fraud. The message is clear. Cuomo has no core beliefs. He was a Democrat when it served him, something else when it didn’t.
“Another recent benefit for Mr. Cuomo took place at the Southampton estate of the conservative media executive Jimmy Finkelstein and his wife Pamela Gross, a former adviser to first lady Melania Trump.
The ad closes with patronizing praise for the mayoral favorite’s affability and presence by a big-money, Cuomo-supporting Democratic donor. She summarily dismisses Mamdani’s policies as pie in the sky.
“Patricia Duff, a Democratic donor, had thrown her lot behind Mr. Cuomo. “Mamdani has a great smile and is wonderfully articulate. His social media is entertaining, and his promises sound fine until you look at the fine print and they're not realistic’.”
The subtext is clear. If the 1% (both Republican and Democratic) think Zohran’s philosophy is bad for them, then it is, de facto, good for the 99% — the regular folk who cannot afford to summer in the Hamptons.
[END]
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/11/2342785/-Mockery-for-the-win-Mamdani-ad-skewers-billionaires-with-a-dramatic-reading-of-a-NYT-article?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
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