Source: Politics
You know you’ve made a good ad when it’s outperforming an endorsement video from Barack Obama.
Ryan Sayles, a 27-year-old Mississippi content creator, is behind arguably the best political spot of the election cycle: Democrat Scott Colom’s viral “pick another protein” ad against GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
You’ve probably seen it by now. The ad featured Mississippi voters’ blunt reactions to Hyde-Smith’s suggestion that people struggling with rising beef prices choose from other protein options.
“Pick another protein? Shiiii-, I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
“Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I’d rather pick another senator.”
Sayles was at his nephew’s football game when he realized something extraordinary was happening.
“I was looking at the first numbers when it first dropped, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is about to be a really good video,’” he told POLITICO after Colom’s historic Senate race victory in the longtime Republican stronghold. “We had the Obama endorsement the day before, so that was our biggest video. It was like, ‘Dang, we ain’t ever gonna top that.’”
“And then this ad came, and we posted it, and it outperformed anything we ever did,” Sayles said.
The 30-second spot quickly became the talk of Mississippi and Washington, helping fuel Colom’s longshot campaign to unseat Hyde-Smith and become the first Black senator from the state since Reconstruction. And, it’s given Democrats across the country another blueprint for how to break through online ahead of a critical 2028 presidential race, as the party continues to rethink its strategy.
With the ad — and Colom’s win — Sayles has gone from a newcomer who stumbled into campaigning almost by accident to a name to watch in Democratic digital politics, as the party looks for fresh ways to reach voters ahead of 2028.
“[Sayles] should be considered the breakout-star of this cycle,” Colom wrote in a post on X about the viral ad earlier this month. “He’s going to be a giant in the media consultant game. He did GAME CHANGING work with SO little.”
In an interview with POLITICO, Sayles described how his lack of prior political experience shaped his approach to creating the ad and why he thinks Democrats should listen more closely to the voters they’re trying to reach. He also discussed the unexpected attention he’s received since the ad — and why he hopes Colom’s victory will serve as a wake-up call for the party to invest in the South.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get involved with the Colom campaign?
I did a lot of freelance videography and photography, and they really just needed a photographer for one event they were doing back in October. And I came and did video and pictures for him, and they kept me around.
They were like, “Yeah, we need to work with him,” and then from then on, I never left.
Take me behind the scenes of creating the protein ad. How did it come together?
Scott and his brother, Andrew, along with [the] campaign manager Gerard, they all plotted the script together, and so they presented it to me.
We filmed it, and I directed and made sure it [felt] like Mississippi. I guess I made it more Mississippi than what it was at the beginning.
You know, [I] just added the entertainment or funny pieces of it, like emphasizing the way he said the words and stuff like that. And then I shot it, edited it, and added the music to it.
I sat there and edited for like five hours. I’ve heard that man say “shit” a million times.
Did you think it was going to go this viral?
I had high hopes for it, but I just didn’t know what it could do.
A lot of our content was getting around Mississippi, but it wasn’t getting around the country. Mississippians knew about Scott Colom’s content and what he was doing, but it wasn’t nationwide — and I think that ad really put a national focus on what was brewing in Mississippi.
Why do you think this particular ad took off so much and felt so natural?
I think the reason it did well nationally is because I think a lot of people are fed up.
A lot of times we don’t express the way we feel, we hold it in, but I think this ad was an expression that people felt all around the country, that we just had the guts to put it out there.
For Mississippi, of course it resonated because that’s something we say down here. People say “shiiiit” all the time — like you know, that’s the normal conversation.
I think the best thing about the ad was it was centering people, centering voters … You know, Scott was in the ad for about five seconds, but then that was the biggest ad of the cycle. I think it was just a lesson that people matter way more than politics.
Did anybody worry the ad went too far? Do you think Democrats are sometimes too cautious?
I think the dope part is, we didn’t run that ad by anybody. … We didn’t go around getting OK’s from anybody … we just put it out. But also … I’ve never worked on a campaign, and I think that I didn’t have a sense of what Dems normally did. You know what I mean?
We just did what we liked, and that was one of the big things Scott always talked about. “Man, if we are good with the content, we are good.”
Scott is the best person I could’ve been in this situation with. He has been such a great person. He’s so creative, and he has allowed me to shine in ways that I just can’t believe.
Did you hear from people in the Democratic Party after the ad came out?
Like I said, this is my first campaign, so this is all a blur right now, honestly. But I would say that I’ve gotten messages, a lot of messages. I don’t know who all those messages are tied to at this point, but I have gotten a lot of messages and people saying, “You did great work, we should talk.”
I’m just happy. Mississippi is, we have hope again, man, that’s the biggest thing. You know, this is my state.
What could the Democratic Party learn from the Colom campaign’s digital strategy?
I want to shout out my digital director. Lacy Nelson was the digital director, and she really helped turn things around when it came to just our distribution being able to put stuff out, because at first I was posting, taking pictures, filming, editing, doing everything by myself, and it was the worst headache.
You gotta put your feet on the ground, you gotta understand the area in which you are working to try to get voters, and you gotta let them know that you see them and make them feel seen.
You have to understand what resonates with people. People in Mississippi are not going to care about the things that somebody who lives in New York City cares about, it’s going to be different. And that messaging needs to be different. You can’t give Mississippi a New York message.
Not that I’m an expert — like I said, this is my first campaign — but I think people should really focus on what that region is listening to.
What does Colom’s victory mean for Democrats’ opportunities across the South?
For a long time we’ve looked at it as impossible. And with very little resources, we showed that if you really get out and you do the work, you talk to people, you meet voters where they are, it is possible.
Mississippi is one of the hardest places that could have happened. When you look at the investment and you look at what other places have received for that type of thing, it shows that the opportunity was always in Mississippi. … We just needed the investment, and I think that over the years, so many organizations have done the work to get us to this point, and we just seized the opportunity.
There’s real opportunity in the South. You just gotta invest.
Read MorePolitics, DC, Midterm Elections, 2026 Elections, Mississippi