• Associated Press , Monday, October 30, 2006 12:15 PM

A political ad targeting a candidate for the U.S. Senate contains racist sexual innuendo about a black man and white woman, charges the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The ad, from the Republican National Committee, features a series of characters declaring their support for black Democrat Harold Ford Jr.--a Memphis, Tenn. congressman who faces Republican Bob Corker.

In it, a blond white woman brags: "I met Harold at the Playboy party." At the end she looks into the camera, holds her hand like a telephone and says, "Harold, call me." The reference is to Ford's attendance at a Playboy Super Bowl last year and he says, "I was there. I like football, and I like girls. I don't think they're doing it to talk about the goodness of me or the goodness of my opponent. They want to scare people about me." But according to the Hilary Shelton, head of the Washington NAACP office, "it is a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women."

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