Character

Attack Ad Dad

stressed incompetent dutiful prototypical overwhelmed struggling

The father in Governor Ritchie's attack ad targets soccer moms by showing family risks under Bartlet's policies. He loads kids, camping gear, and dog Rex into the car for vacation, then struggles to drive up a steep hill. This failure stresses the front-seat mom, positioning him as an overburdened foil who embodies inadequate support for working parents. Toby and Will debate the ad's ethics in Toby's office, highlighting its manipulative power.

4 appearances

Also known as: Dad, father in the ad, DAD (ad character)

Attack Ad …'s Journey

A timeline through the narrative

4 moments

S4E21 · Life on Mars

Soccer Moms and the Ethics of an Attack Ad

Embarrassed and flustered — constructed to amplify the mother's worry and by extension voters' fear.

Portrayed in the ad as the struggling father attempting to haul kids, gear, and a dog up an impossibly steep incline, functioning as the foil whose incompetence triggers the mother's …

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S4E21 · Life on Mars

Frustration to a Counter-Ad: Toby Forces a Plan

Depicted as flustered and ineffectual in the ad; in the scene he is a rhetorical target for Toby's ridicule.

Referenced as the inept father hauling kids, camping gear and dog up an impossible slope; Toby mocks his portrayal to expose the ad's absurdity and emotional targeting.

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S4E21 · Life on Mars

Gas‑Mask Shock and the 'Clear Blue Sky' Pivot

Forced and fraught — shown as struggling to protect family in a suddenly hostile environment.

The 'Attack Ad Dad' functions in the imagined commercial as the family's provider, appearing with the kids and dog and participating in the visual of the family donning gas masks, …

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S4E21 · Life on Mars

Toby's Moral Rebuke and the Abrupt Exit

Portrayed as struggling and inadequate — a visual device to elicit doubt about current policy.

Referenced as the father in the attack ad; used to ground the family tableau and provide a foil for the administration's alleged policy failures.

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