• Spencer Pratt released an AI-generated campaign ad styled like a Star Wars trailer, featuring deepfake versions of Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass
• Pratt is currently polling in second place in the L.A. mayoral race behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass ahead of the June 2 election
• The ad is part of a string of viral campaign content, including a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air parody and a video set to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”
• Pratt presents himself as a nonpartisan community advocate, but city filings and public records show Republicans are quietly steering his campaign
• Political commentators say Pratt’s social-media-first strategy could reshape how candidates — especially conservatives — run for office

Spencer Pratt just made a campaign ad that looks like it cost $200 million — and it probably cost a fraction of that, because AI did the heavy lifting.

The Hills alum and Los Angeles mayoral candidate dropped a blockbuster-style AI-generated video this week that has people genuinely talking — not just about the race, but about what political advertising is going to look like from here on out. The clip features Pratt soaring through a burning, destroyed Los Angeles on a futuristic vehicle ripped straight from the Star Wars universe, while AI-generated versions of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass deliver villain monologues about the city’s decline.

“You didn’t finish burning the city to the ground in your first term. Make sure you finish the job in your second,” the AI Newsom says with a grin. AI Bass gets her own line — “The only thing that can stop us is someone telling the truth. As long as they don’t have any hope, the city’s ours” — before the two face off in a lightsaber duel, with the citizens of Los Angeles eventually pulling out their own lightsabers to fight back.

It’s absurd. It’s slick. And it’s working.

A Campaign Built for the Scroll

The Star Wars video is just the latest in a run of viral campaign content from Pratt that has turned a long-shot celebrity candidacy into something the political world is actually paying attention to. A few weeks ago he uploaded a video set to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” contrasting the untouched properties of Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman with the charred ruins where his own Pacific Palisades home once stood — and the trailer he’s been living in since the 2025 wildfires tore through the neighborhood.

Now he’s added a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air parody to the mix. TMZ caught the new ad, which shows a truck towing Pratt’s now-famous Airstream trailer through the streets and pulling into Bel-Air, while Pratt raps about losing his home in the fires and relocating — taking shots at Bass along the way. It’s a wink at the earlier controversy over where exactly Pratt was actually sleeping: he’d declared “This is where I live” while standing in front of the trailer on his burned lot, before it emerged he’d been staying at the ritzy Hotel Bel-Air. Rather than run from it, he leaned in and made it content.

BlazeTV hosts Pat Gray and Keith Malinak reacted to the Star Wars ad with something close to awe. “If you don’t have a lot of money in your campaign, you just let AI take over,” Malinak said. Gray went further: “I think we’re seeing a complete change in the political advertising world from now on. There’s going to be a lot of that kind of stuff, AI-generated things.”

“I hope it works out for Spencer Pratt,” Malinak added. “If they were ever going to get Republican leadership, it’s this cycle.”

The Nonpartisan Candidate With a Republican Backbone

Pratt has been careful to present himself as something other than a party candidate. “All my supporters in Los Angeles are Democrats,” he told CBS. “Everyone I know, my family, are all Democrats.” To NBC, he was even more direct: “When you vote for Spencer Pratt on your ballot today or tonight, it’ll say Spencer Pratt, community advocate because that’s how I identify. I do not represent a party. I don’t have a campaign manager. I don’t have campaign consultants. There’s no political party backing me.”

But a closer look at his campaign infrastructure tells a different story. According to city disclosure filings reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Pratt’s campaign headquarters is a boutique tax service agency in Imperial Beach, San Diego County, run by the wife of former GOP congressman Brian Bilbray. Their daughter — a former Republican Party delegate — serves as Pratt’s treasurer, with a listed email tied to an entity called “BB Campaigns” that has no public footprint to speak of.

His fundraising events, including intimate April gatherings in Beverly Hills and Mandeville Canyon, were organized in part by Pluvious Group, an L.A.-based political consulting firm with a distinctly right-wing client list: Donald Trump, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, and California Rep. Mike Garcia, among others. Pluvious also helped elect Nathan Hochman as Los Angeles D.A. in 2024 — Hochman ran as an independent after previously losing as a Republican. The firm has its own baggage: California’s Fair Political Practices Commission found it had set up illegal campaign donations and was aware of a money laundering scheme during a state-level race.

Pratt’s spokesperson — who has worked with him and wife Heidi Montag long before the campaign launched in January — didn’t respond to THR’s questions about the campaign’s key staffers and consultants.

Incumbent Mayor Bass still leads in the latest polls heading into the June 2 election. Pratt and progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman are competing for the second spot that would get them into the November 3 runoff. Raman has called him a “MAGA Republican.” He’s called her a “Ramanchurian Candidate.”

Why the Political World Is Taking Notes

Whatever happens on June 2, Pratt has stumbled onto something real. His campaign is almost entirely built around emotional, high-energy social media content aimed directly at Angelenos who are exhausted by homelessness, the fentanyl crisis, mismanaged city services, and the raw grief of the wildfires. He’s not holding town halls — he’s making videos that people actually watch and share.

About 51% of Gen Z teenagers get their news primarily from social media, and adult consumption of social media news is climbing steadily. The candidates who figure that out first have a real advantage — and Pratt, who spent years building a reality TV persona on The Hills, understands the camera and the audience in a way most politicians simply don’t.

Commentators have drawn a direct line from Pratt’s approach back to Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns — the entertainer-as-candidate model, where the message lands through feeling rather than policy papers. “Make America Great Again” worked because it was simple and visceral. Pratt’s trailer-on-the-burned-lot imagery works for the same reason. You don’t need a speechwriter when you have a charred foundation and a camera.

The Star Wars ad, though, is something new. It’s not just emotional — it’s cinematic, shareable, and cheap to produce in a way that would’ve been impossible even two years ago. If it helps Pratt punch through in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in nearly three decades, campaigns everywhere will be paying attention.

“I think we’re seeing a complete change in the political advertising world from now on,” Gray said. He might not be wrong.

The post Spencer Pratt’s AI ‘Star Wars’ Ad Is Changing Campaign Playbooks appeared first on Cream.

• Spencer Pratt fired back at Chelsea Handler after she compared him to Donald Trump in a profanity-laced Instagram video
• A new Emerson College poll shows Pratt in second place with 22%, just eight points behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass
• Pratt’s team flatly denied reports from TMZ and Deadline that his campaign is being filmed as a reality series for Boardwalk Pictures
• Billionaire donors including Dan Loeb, Bobby Kotick, the Winklevoss twins, and Jeanie Buss have poured money into his campaign
• The L.A. mayoral primary is set for June 2, with a runoff possible if no candidate clears 50%

Spencer Pratt’s run for Los Angeles mayor has officially become one of the most chaotic, compelling, and genuinely hard-to-look-away political stories in the country right now — and that was before Chelsea Handler got involved.

On Friday, May 15, Handler posted a video to Instagram pouring herself a drink and delivering a pointed message about Pratt’s political ambitions. “If you’re seeing this video, this is a reminder that a straight, white male, former reality star that has no previous experience in government should not be a legitimate political candidate,” she said, as photos of Pratt flashed on screen — followed by a goofy shot of Donald Trump. “Have we learned anything yet? The bar is on the f—— floor, people, and I need you to jump over it.”

Pratt, who has never once in his public life backed down from a fight, responded quickly. He posted a clip on X from comedian Shane Gillis’ set at the recent Netflix Kevin Hart roast — specifically the part where Gillis cracks a joke about Handler having attended a dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house in 2010, with Prince Andrew and Woody Allen also at the table. The Epstein card. He played it.

Their tension isn’t new. Handler spent years taking shots at Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag on her late-night show Chelsea Lately back in the late 2000s, so this particular feud has been simmering for over a decade. The Handler-Gillis dynamic had already been heating up after an onstage confrontation at the Netflix Is A Joke festival finale at the Kia Forum on May 10, and Pratt clearly saw an opening.

The Polls Are Not Laughing Anymore

What makes this feud genuinely newsworthy — beyond the obvious entertainment value — is that Pratt is no longer a punchline in this race. A new Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey conducted May 9-10 among 1,000 likely primary voters shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass at 30%, with Pratt right behind her at 22% — more than doubling his support from 10% back in March. L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman sits third at 19%.

Just as striking: the number of undecided voters collapsed from 51% in March to just 16% now. People are making up their minds, and a lot of them are landing on Pratt.

Prediction markets are tracking the shift too. Both Polymarket and Kalshi currently give Bass roughly a 58-59% chance of winning, with Pratt at 25% and Raman at 17-18%. That’s a real number for a guy who got his start as a reality TV villain on MTV.

Bass herself, in a one-on-one interview with ABC7’s Josh Haskell, acknowledged the obvious. “I think he’s tapping into the anger and frustration that people have,” she said. “I think we’re a celebrity-driven culture.” When asked directly whether she thought Pratt knew what it takes to run the second-largest city in the country, she was blunt: “I don’t think he has a clue.”

Pratt launched his campaign in January, one year after the Palisades Fire destroyed his Pacific Palisades home along with more than 18,000 other structures. “We are standing here amongst the ashes of our once beautiful town because the state and local leaders let us burn,” he said at the time. “They all stood by while our community became a tinder box.” Since then, he’s turned that fury into a full anti-establishment campaign targeting Bass, homelessness, public safety, and government corruption — and, apparently, attracting some very serious money along the way.

Billionaires, Fundraisers, and a Katharine McPhee Performance

The donor list that’s coalesced around Pratt would raise eyebrows in any political race. According to the New York Times DealBook, among those backing him financially are hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb of Third Point Capital, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, crypto moguls Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, entertainment mogul Haim Saban (estimated net worth: $3.3 billion), Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge, his son Elliot Grainge of Atlantic Music Group, and Hollywood producer Brian Grazer.

Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo put it plainly: “Unfortunately, my entire life is talking to people in the industry, but I can report that everyone was pleasantly — or unpleasantly — surprised by Spencer Pratt’s debate performance.”

The debate in question had 79% of NBC viewers declaring Pratt the winner, according to polling cited in reports. His dismissal of Raman as a “random city council member” went viral almost immediately. “All the unions support Mayor Bass,” he said afterward. “You think it’s easier to run against the incumbent mayor with all the unions, or a random city council member who has been a failure for six years?”

Earlier this week, Katharine McPhee and David Foster hosted a fundraiser at their Brentwood mansion that drew a crowd of entertainment industry heavyweights. McPhee performed a modified version of Tina Turner’s “The Best” with Foster on keys, singing, “You’re simply the best / Better than all the rest / Better than Karen Bass / And Nithya Raman.” She accidentally called Raman “Cynthia” at one point, laughed it off, and Pratt just shrugged.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising development on the donor front: Nicole Avant — Hollywood scion, wife of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and former Obama-era ambassador — has reportedly indicated she plans to support Pratt. The reaction in Democratic circles was immediate. “What the f-k?” said one veteran political consultant, per Page Six Hollywood. “She’s crossing a line she won’t be able to come back from. She’s done as a Democratic donor.”

Avant had previously backed Rick Caruso in the last mayoral race, which Bass won by nearly 10 points.

The Reality Show That Isn’t (Or Is It?)

The week also brought a wave of reports — from both TMZ and Deadline — claiming Pratt had signed a deal with Boardwalk Pictures (the Santa Monica production company behind Netflix’s AKA Charlie Sheen and FX’s Welcome to Wrexham) to document his campaign and, potentially, his time in office. “It’s both familiar and uncharted territory, isn’t it?” a production source told Deadline. “That’s part of Spencer and Heidi’s appeal, right?”

Pratt’s team moved fast to shut it down. “This is inaccurate,” a spokesperson told TheWrap. “There is no series in production and cameras have not been following the campaign. He does not have any signed contract. No contract exists related to this because it isn’t true.” A rep also told Us Weekly he has “no plans to do so” going forward.

Boardwalk Pictures did not respond to requests for comment. Separately, the couple had been in talks with Hulu about a show documenting their life after the fires, but that project has not been greenlit.

The denial hasn’t stopped the chatter. One insider told Radar Online that regardless of whether cameras are officially rolling, “Spencer may have denied he is shooting this campaign for a reality show, but it is still a reality show-style circus of a campaign. He has spent years watching how celebrity culture and politics have merged together, and he genuinely believes the old rules no longer apply.”

Hotel Bel-Air, Airstreams, and Where He Actually Lives

Another controversy hit when TMZ reported that Pratt had been staying at the Hotel Bel-Air — where rooms start at $1,500 a night — rather than the Airstream trailer parked on the lot of his burned-down Pacific Palisades home, which featured prominently in his campaign ads. The clip, in which he stands in front of the trailer saying “This is where I live,” has drawn over 13.8 million views.

Pratt’s response on X was pointed: “Hey guys, why don’t they wanna talk about why I need a hotel in the first place? Karen Bass let my home burn down. Also 6,000 of my neighbors. NBD.”

On TMZ Live, he elaborated. “I don’t live at the Hotel Bel-Air. I don’t live in the Airstream. I don’t live in Santa Barbara. I don’t have a house. They burned it down.” He said the Airstream had become unsafe for security reasons — citing “vantage points for a would-be sniper” — and that the Hotel Bel-Air was simply the safest option available. His wife Heidi and their sons Gunner, 8, and Ryker, 3, have been staying in Carpinteria, California.

“That is where I live, period,” he said of the Palisades property. “I don’t need to sleep there every night. I don’t need to go number two on that toilet. That is where I live.”

The Obama Comparison and The View’s Reaction

If there’s one moment that crystallized the absurdity of this whole situation, it might be Pratt’s recent interview with NBC Los Angeles, in which he compared his experience to Barack Obama’s pre-political career. “I have two awards from my community,” he told anchor Conan Nolan. “President Obama actually didn’t even have awards when he was a community organizer. He was able to become a senator and then a president for eight years. So, I feel like him, and I have the same experience.”

The View addressed it Wednesday. Joy Behar’s response was immediate: “What? Snapchatter of the Year is not the same thing as head of the Law Review at Harvard?” Sunny Hostin pointed out that Obama graduated from Harvard Law School and served in the U.S. Senate before the White House. Behar also noted that Bass holds a JFK Profiles in Courage Award, while Pratt’s standout credential is winning Snapchatter of the Year at the 2018 Shorty Awards.

To be fair, Sara Haines and Alyssa Farah Griffin both pushed back slightly, arguing that Ivy League credentials don’t automatically translate to effective governance — but the audience was mostly laughing.

Not everyone in Pratt’s orbit is cheering him on, either. His sister Stephanie Pratt wrote on X in February: “Spencer has done great work for the Palisades. But LA does not need another unqualified and inexperienced mayor. A vote for him is a vote for stupidity.”

Pratt, for his part, has leaned into the outsider framing. “I’m no longer a reality star,” he’s insisted. “I’m the only candidate living in reality, too.” His campaign has run AI-generated videos depicting him as a Batman-style vigilante fighting a dystopian Los Angeles, with Bass cast as the Joker. He’s also posted a clip using Khloé Kardashian screaming “liar” from an old episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, spliced over footage of Bass from the recent debate.

The June 2 primary is now just days away. If no candidate clears 50%, the top two vote-getters advance to a November runoff — which, given the current numbers, looks increasingly likely. Whether Pratt makes it to that stage, or whether Bass pulls away as undecided voters make their final calls, the race has already done something remarkable: it’s made people outside of Los Angeles pay attention to a city council election.

“Funny how they never attack my policy ideas,” Pratt posted on X this week. “They can only try to assassinate your character. I’m in the arena, son.”

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