Capitol Records took out an ad today for the soundtrack album of Trainspotting in the L.A. Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, showing Dole wearing a button pushing "Iggy Pop for President." Pop's "Lust for Life" is one of the featured songs in a movie that Dole denounced last week as promoting the "romance of heroin."
"Listen and choose Trainspotting," says the ad, "(or you could just stay home and watch the Brooklyn Dodgers)." Last week, Dole made a reference to the Brooklyn team in the present tense, although it hasn't existed since 1958. Campaign officials later said he was only joking.
Dole's campaign team didn't see any humor in the Capitol ad, however. In a statement released today (which referred to the movie as "Trainspotters"), Press Secretary Nelson Warfield said, "Nothing better illustrates the need for corporate responsibility in the entertainment industry than this glib and whimsical ad for the soundtrack from a movie that glamorizes heroin use. Like Bill Clinton himself, too many entertainment industry executives seem to think that drug abuse is something to laugh about. That's wrong.
"As President, Bob Dole will urge all Americans to speak with one voice in condemning drug use and telling our young people that drugs are illegal, dangerous and wrong."
Dole has been running TV ads claiming that drug use among young people has increased during the Clinton presidency and showing Clinton joking about his experience with marijuana as a young man.
Capitol had no immediate response to Dole's statement but promised to answer press release with press release soon. The company did say it may run the ad in other publications.