Super PAC supporting John Kasich runs Trump-inspired ad

ALAN HE AND SOPAN DEB
CBS News

U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND OHIO GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH ANSWERS A QUESTION DURING AN INTERVIEW WITH REUTERS IN CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE SEPTEMBER 8, 2015. REUTERS/BRIAN SNYDER

The super PAC supporting John Kasich’s presidential candidacy, New Day for America, has released a new ad designed to draw a direct contrast with Republican frontrunner, billionaire businessman Donald Trump.

The ad, called “Momentum,” opens on a helicopter that conjures the image of Trump’s helicopter, and an announcer’s voiceover initially seems to list characteristics that describe Trump. It says, “He’s turned red ink to black. Shattered expectations. Experience. Success.”

The ad goes on to say that he’s “blunt” and “direct,” and “not part of the tired system,” and as the announcer says that he’s “done great things – not for himself, but for us,” the achievements Kasich touts on the campaign trail appear on screen, like the number of jobs he’s created, balancing the budget, his time in Congress, and the tax cuts he’s enacted.

Here’s the ad:

Bloomberg first reported the ad, which was produced by veteran political ad man Fred Davis. He’s known for spots like Celebrity, which mocked then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008, as well as for one of the weirder ads produced in recent years, Demon Sheep, for Carly Fiorina in 2010, who was at the time running for California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s senate seat.

The super PAC characterized the buy as “substantial” and said it’s‎ running the ad from Sept. 22-Oct. 12 on New Hampshire broadcast and cable TV. This ad, its fifth in New Hampshire, brings the group’s spending on New Hampshire airwaves to $5.7 million.

Though Kasich delivered a solid, if not flashy, performance in CNN’s marathon three-hour debate Wednesday, he’s still struggling to find his footing in a crowded GOP field dominated by Trump. At a luncheon in Southern California last week, he acknowledged that he is “still largely unknown nationally.”

And although he didn’t mention Trump by name, his prescription for leadership may have been a subtle jab at Trump. “You know what’s really important when you’re a leader?” Kasich said, as audience members munched on salads. “Tone. You know, it’s not like stridency and anger and you’ve got to be cool. You’ve got to be cool as a cucumber when you are a leader. You get too worked up, people begin to worry about your judgment.”

Read the original story at CBS News.