Pete Hoekstra 2012 Superbowl advertisement in Michigan

The 2012 Superbowl advertisement in Michigan by Pete Hoekstra was a television advertisement which ran statewide in Michigan during the 2012 Super Bowl. In the advertisement, former United States Representative Pete Hoekstra, who is now seeking one of two seats for Michigan in the United States Senate targeted Democratic incumbent senator Debbie Stabenow.
Premise
The 30-second ad opened with the sound of a gong and showed an Asian woman (played by 2012 Miss Napa Valley Lisa Chan) riding a bike in a rice paddy and talking in pidgin English. The ad is critical of government spending by Stabenow and mocks her name with the Asian woman saying “Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow". The commercial asks viewers to visit Hoekstra's website which has statistics about federal spending beside images of Chinese flags, currency and stereotypical Chinatown font. In the HTML code on Hoekstra’s site the woman in the ad is identified as “yellowgirl”, but a statement was released explaining that it was mistakenly shortened from “yellowshirtgirl”.
Criticism
Asian-American groups called the ad “very disturbing”, national GOP consultant Mike Murphy said it was “really, really dumb”, and Foreign Policy magazine managing editor Blake Hounshell called it “despicable.” A coalition of black ministers in Detroit called for Hoekstra to apologize. Two of Hoekstra’s GOP opponents, Clark Durant and Gary Glenn, questioned whether Hoekstra is the right candidate for Republicans to support. The ad was called “blatantly racist" by Michael Yaki, former aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Senator Daniel Inouye, the longest serving senator in Congress and the highest-ranking Asian American politician in history, said Hoekstra's "racist thoughts are not welcome in the United States Senate.” Journalist James Fallows of The Atlantic called it the "most revolting ad". The NAACP denounced the ad as an "unnecessary race card."
Some warned the ad would revive discrimination against Asian-Americans in Michigan where smashing imported cars was common in the 1980s, and in 1982 Chinese-American Vincent Chin was beaten to death by two unemployed autoworkers angry about Japanese competition. Critics also pointed out that Hoekstra voted for the $700-billion Wall Street bailout and voted for trillions more in deficit spending while he was in Congress.
Hoekstra initially stood by the ad, claiming it hit Stabenow "smack dab between the eyes" on the economy. However, on February 10, 2012 Hoekstra shut down his controversial Chinese-themed website and phased in a new TV commercial in the slot of his original Super Bowl ad. American Values super PAC, an Asian American group has claimed credit for the scrub shortly after the groups launch of an online viral ad condemning Hoekstra.
On February 16, Chan apologized for her involvement in the ad. In a statement on her Facebook page, she said the role was "not in any way representative of who I am" and "absolutely a mistake on my part."
In April 2012, Stabenow's campaign reported that she had had her best fundraising quarter ever, taking $1.5m from January to March 2012, which they say was in part due to the advertisement.
Cast
Lisa Chan
Lisa Chan is 2012 Miss Napa Valley.
Pete Hoekstra
Pete Hoekstra is a former United States Representative from Michigan, who is running for one of two United States Senate positions in 2012.

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