A US politician has sparked a viral internet sensation by depicting her rival as a "demon sheep" in a bizarre campaign video.
The ad has been widely mocked online since it was released by California republican candidate Carly Fiorina earlier this week.
Fiorina's rival Tom Campbell is portrayed in the ad as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" with red laser eyes.
At the beginning of the ad, a sheep representing Mr Campbell is raised on a pedestal into the sky.
Then the sheep's eyes turn red and the pedestal is struck by lighting, causing it to crash back down to the ground.
Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and John McCain adviser, is running for a US Senate seat in California.
Despite the video being labelled "the worst political ad ever", Fiorina's team said it is only the beginning.
"We can expect to see equally if not more shocking web-based ads or videos coming from our campaign moving forward," Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund told the Daily Beast.
"It's been touted as the most genius ad ever all the way down to the worst but no matter what, people are talking about it and it generates views."
Campbell's team has also spoken out about the ad, calling it bizarre and saying it shows the "Fiorina campaign is in complete meltdown mode".
“Tom Campbell will stick to talking about how to rein in federal spending … we're happy to let Carly Fiorina talk to California voters about demon sheep," a spokesman said.
According to the Beast, the video was created by Republican ad guru Fred Davis — the same man who created the 2006 video "Celebrity" comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
The video has already attracted close to 150,000 views on YouTube where it was first posted.
Another one of Fiorina's opponents, Chuck Devore, has even started the website demonsheep.org to mock the campaign.
On the site Devore asks voters to stop these “Jawa-like, Terminator-esque, Demon Sheep from taking over California."
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