--- title: Honest Gil's Kentucky Senate Political Campaign Ad Tells It Like It Is description: A (fake) candidate from an anti-corruption campaign is entering the Kentucky Senate race to highlight the need for campaign finance reform canonical: https://time.com/2989158/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-15T21:05:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:43.341Z article:section: Politics og:title: This “Honest Political Ad” is hilarious and sad og:description: A (fake) candidate from an anti-corruption campaign is entering the Kentucky Senate race to highlight the need for campaign finance reform og:url: https://time.com/2989158/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ddc46d33c5aa773/69869be9e8524ba2c3603e73/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Honest Political Ad Gil Fulbright Corruption og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This “Honest Political Ad” is hilarious and sad twitter:description: A (fake) candidate from an anti-corruption campaign is entering the Kentucky Senate race to highlight the need for campaign finance reform twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ddc46d33c5aa773/69869be9e8524ba2c3603e73/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # If Campaign Ads Told the Truth, They Would Sound Like This > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jul 15, 2014 9:05 PM UTC   by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jul 15, 2014 9:05 PM UTC Ever wonder what politicians would [say](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-the-honest-politician-crash-the-most-expensive-senate-race-of-all-time) if they had to always speak the unvarnished truth? Meet Gil Fulbright, (Or Phil Gulbright. Or Bill Fulbright. Or Phillip Mimouf-Wifarts. You’ll understand once you’ve watched the ad). “Honest Gil” is a satirical candidate for the U.S. Senate in the Kentucky race between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes. Gil plans to rent a campaign bus, take out billboard and TV ads and show up at campaign events in order to make a spectacle of what is poised to be the most expensive Senate election in American history. Fulbright will be the face of Represent.Us, a non-partisan movement claiming 450,000 supporters that wants to pass campaign finance and anti-corruption laws to limit the influence of money on Washington. With 26 days left in its [Indiegogo campaign](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-the-honest-politician-crash-the-most-expensive-senate-race-of-all-time) to raise money for Fulbright’s shenanigans, the group has already busted through its fundraising goal of $20,000. The effort is reminiscent of the Mayday PAC, Lawrence [Lessig’s](http://time.com/2967157/lawrence-lessig-campaign-finance/) new crowd-funded cannibal [Super PAC](http://time.com/84556/lawrence-lessig-superpac/) to destroy all Super PACs. Whatever your position on campaign finance, Fulbright’s commercial is at the very least a funny/tragically spot-on commentary on the state of political discourse in the U.S. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2989158/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2989158/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption/"},"headline":"If Campaign Ads Told the Truth, They Would Sound Like This","datePublished":"2014-07-15T21:05:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:43.341Z","description":"Meet \"Honest Gil\", a satirical candidate in Kentucky's senate race","url":"https://time.com/2989158/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption/","keywords":["Campaign Finance","Newsfeed","democrats","corruption","GOP","Mitch McConnell","Kentucky"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ddc46d33c5aa773/69869be9e8524ba2c3603e73/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ddc46d33c5aa773/69869be9e8524ba2c3603e73/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Honest Political Ad Gil Fulbright Corruption","caption":"Honest Political Ad Gil Fulbright Corruption","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/campaign-finance/","name":"Campaign Finance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2989158/honest-political-ad-gil-fulbright-corruption/","name":"If Campaign Ads Told the Truth, They Would Sound Like This"}}]}] ```