Well, not literally. That’s not real feces in the ad. I think.

We’ve reached that point in the election cycle when longshot candidates are desperate to get voters to notice them. You can’t win an election without name recognition (usually) and the incumbent typically enjoys an enormous advantage in name ID. Your only hope as an unknown is to make as big a splash as possible with the few ad dollars available to you.

Remember “Big Dan” Rodimer? Or Don Blankenship? Or the king of the viral ad, Dale Peterson?

They all lost. The “notice me!” strategy never actually works. But it makes campaign season more bearable. Case in point:

They said I needed money. 🤣 I have other assets. pic.twitter.com/OI9z9EDRRG

— Sarah Stogner (@Sarah4RRC) February 14, 2022

That stunt led the San Antonio Express-News to withdraw its endorsement of Stogner. (“We messaged Stogner over Facebook about the video. In response, she said she posted it as an attempt to get the attention of voters ‘with no campaign money.'”) She’s less likely to win now than she was before she cut that ad.

But the rest of us gained something more important from it, easy content and a mid-afternoon giggle on a slow news day.

Which brings us to the “BS” ad. I’d call it a “palate cleanser” except that you won’t feel like eating afterward for many hours.

Meet Alex Walker, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Colorado’s Eighth District. But be patient: As Tim Miller notes, there’s almost a full minute here of turds raining down on people before Walker himself appears. Watch, then read on.

Does Walker have a chance against Lauren Boebert? Ah, no. Per the Denver Post, Boebert has $2 million cash on hand for her race this fall. The 11 Democrats running against her (yes, really, 11) have 13 percent of that — combined. And Boebert’s district is now more Republican than it used to be thanks to the new redistricting map in Colorado, with a nine-point baseline edge for the GOP. Combine all of that with the heavily pro-Republican national environment this fall and … yeah. Walker’s going to lose.

But inasmuch as there’s a strategy here, I guess it’s this: Distinguish himself from the rest of the very crowded Democratic field as best he can, win the primary, then hope that locals’ embarrassment at Boebert’s antics gives him a fighting chance in the general election. There’s always blind hope that she’ll stumble into a scandal before November, allowing Democrats to peel off a few centrist Republicans. (Note Walker’s lip service to small government in the ad.) Just one question: If your case against the incumbent rests on the idea that she’s an embarrassment to her district, is an ad featuring dookie falling from the sky the way to signal gravitas by comparison?

Walker’s not thinking that far ahead, I’m sure. Job one is winning the primary and comparing Boebert to a firehose of literal sh*t probably helps with that. Probably?