How do you break out of the pack if you're in a mayoral race with dozens of other candidates?

Maybe you need to do something dramatic and perhaps even a little weird. Something that gets people talking. Maybe you make a campaign ad like the one from Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate Jeffrey Alan Wagner, who's running in Minneapolis.

In his ad, Wagner emerges from a lake like the Creature from the Black Lagoon to deliver a somewhat unusual argument for his candidacy: He wants clean government and promises to avoid strip clubs. [Warning: Video contains bleeped profanity.]

Maybe striding out of the lake was meant to show he's a real product of Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes. But it probably would be a mistake to overthink this.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.