A new recruitment ad for the New Orleans Police Department was put up on YouTube on Wednesday. One hour later the ad was yanked. The response by commenters was so vitriolic and homophobic, according to PIO Reese Harper, that the ad was quickly removed.

The ad cost $27,500 and was paid for by the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation. The purpose of the ad was to expand NOPD’s recruitment efforts by putting a more progressive spin on the job. From the looks of the ad, someone got too carried away. The ad is one hot mess.

Granted, New Orleans is a unique American city. It is at the top of my list of favorites, or at least it used to be. Now like with many other cities, there is a major crime problem. Morale is low in the New Orleans Police Department and many members are taking early retirement or just quitting as they find other employment rather than remain on the job. There is a real shortage of police officers in the department.

Last month the police department teamed up with a local filmmaker to create a 30-second recruitment ad. The characters used are very Mardi Gras-ish in costume and artistic expression. It is reported that the ad features “Mardi Gras Indians, Big Freedia backup dancers, Baby Dolls, Rolling Elvi and Chewbacchus characters dancing around a Latina NOPD officer, the calm center of their kinetic, Carnivalistic storm.”

“Diversity” above all else, right? The idea was to make a progressive ad, according to the director.

It didn’t look like a typical recruitment ad, director Crista Rock said, and that was the point.

“We tried to do something progressive and awesome to get officers who would embrace our culture,” Rock said.

What could possibly go wrong? Well, the ad was put up on YouTube and other social media accounts at 9 a.m. Wednesday. One hour later it was removed due to comments.

“The video was removed because we did not want anyone to be offended by the negative commentary,” said public information officer Reese Harper.

Social media reactions were swift and vitriolic, according to Rock.

“The immediate reactions were just hate—horrible, slanderous, makes-your-heart-sink type comments, like, ‘The NOPD doesn’t hire sissies. Why are these grown men shaking ass?'” she said. “I also personally got a lot of hate messages.

“We knew it was going to be something of a lightning rod,” Rock said. “I just didn’t know it was going to go in that direction.”

I’m not sure who the director thought the audience would be. Was that mix of actors the best representatives of the city? What if a normie from, say the Midwest, was interested in a job in police work and checked out the ad? Who besides NOLA residents does that ad speak to? Diversity and progressive action mean casting a wide net, not just depending on locals. The locals haven’t seemed too interested in going to work for the NOPD, which is why they are aggressively recruiting. The police department has already relaxed its restrictions in order to increase meeting recruitment goals.

“Everywhere Else Is Cleveland”—which features women, people of color, and members of the local LGBTQ community—was commissioned by the foundation as part of a broader recruitment push to help fortify the city’s shrinking police force. To broaden their applicant pool, the department recently relaxed restrictions around past marijuana use, credit scores and physical appearance—including tattoos, facial hair and nail polish.

The commercial’s title is a play on the famous Tennessee Williams quote: “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”

The Department of Justice identified a pattern of discriminatory policing in 2012 and told NOPD to take steps to address profiling based on race, ethnicity and LGBTQ status. The department crafted a training and outreach program. During a consent decree hearing in November, a U.S. District Juge said NOPD’s LGBTQ liaison officers deserved praise for their efforts.

Rock is confused why the department didn’t stand up for its LGBTQ officers instead of pulling the ad. She said it was the worst move they could have made. But, c’mon. The ad was all about gays and little else, except for the Latina thrown in the middle of the group at the end. Was the purpose to only appeal to members of the LGBTQ community? Wouldn’t everyone else feel excluded, given how heavy-handed the ad is? For clarity, I have no problem with gay police officers as long as they can do their job like anyone else.

The commercial ad is gone but the billboard campaign remains.

Meanwhile, billboards that appear in 23 locations with the message, “NOPD needs some new stars” appeared last month and will remain in place through March, said Elizabeth Boh, board chair of the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation.

Those advertisements were produced in part by John Linder, the policing consultant hired by the city to revamp the NOPD and stanch the bloodletting of an ongoing violent crime crisis, Boh said. His New Mexico-based company, Mindset Catalyze LLC, has crafted police plans and marketing campaigns for Baltimore, New York and Albuquerque. In 1999, he worked with the New Orleans Public School system to enact reform.

“Recruiting is probably the most difficult task we can face—we put 2,800 at the top and only 25 fall out the bottom,” board member John Casbon said. “We are going to win on the recruiting. These (ads) are for young people to look at and say, ‘I want to do this. I feel a calling.'”

The key is to appeal to everyone, not just select groups. Worry less about progressiveness and more about an interest in doing professional police work. That is $27,500 down the drain. Maybe next time the process to hire a director for a recruitment ad will take that into consideration.