Last week, the McCain campaign made headlines by running an anti-Obama that utilized images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I asked a few members of the coveted youth vote demographic if the ad spoke to them.

Brian O’Leary, 25, said, “I think it’s counter-effective. Why would McCain ever want to run an ad with a crowd of thousands chanting ‘Obama, Obama, Obama’?”

Brian added that the intent of the ad seemed to be “to marginalize Barack as a rock-star” and a “liberal fancy-pants celebrity.” He remarked, “But then what’s bizarre is that 15 seconds in, the ad takes a funny left turn and hits him on a policy level regarding oil drilling and taxes. Rather than just spend the thirty seconds making Obama seem like a Jonas Brother, they change course and . . . claim he’s going to raise your taxes.”

Lucas Held, 28, said, “If they set up to do it [compare Obama to Paris and Britney] subconsciously the way a really good attack ad should, then they definitely failed. They wound up looking pretty ridiculous for making the comparison so blatantly.”

Huffington Post blogger Allison Kilkenny, 26, said, “McCain made an ad that plays to his last really strong base: ignorant people, who are afraid of everything, especially godless Hollywood. Therefore, the commercial was PERFECT because it plays solely to that base and harps on a very easy-to-grasp stereotype: the immoral Beverly Hills blonde. . . . McCain was speaking directly to his base. They get it and McCain knows they get it. It was a ‘wink, wink, nudge, nudge’ maneuver...sort of like whenever Bush dropped the word "faith" into a speech. They're speaking in code.”

What do you think? How did you react when you first saw the ad? Check out the video and leave your comments below.