One of the most well-funded anti-Zohran Mamdani super PACs operating in this fall’s mayoral election recently dropped $250,000 on a set of attack ads that contain misleading stock imagery and curiously also compliment the Democratic front-runner, the Daily News has learned.
The ads, which started appearing last week on digital platforms like Instagram as image banners paid for by the New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 PAC, feature photos purported to be of average city residents along with quotes attributed to them offering criticisms of Mamdani.
“He sounds nice. But he has zero experience,” a woman referred to as 55-year-old “Robinette” of Morris Park in the Bronx is quoted as saying in one of the ads, next to a photo of a Black woman.
However, the woman pictured next to the quote isn’t named Robinette. In fact, she’s a model named “Maricel A.,” her profile on professional stock photography database Kraken Images confirms.
At least three of the other individuals pictured in the new PAC ads — referred to as “Desmond,” “Zheng” and “Ling” — are also stock photography models, The News was able to confirm through reverse image searches.
A political operative working for New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, who would only speak on condition of anonymity, acknowledged Tuesday that all the new ads use images of stock photography models who didn’t themselves provide the quotes being attributed to them.
The source told The News the PAC opted to obscure the identities of the individuals in question for safety reasons, saying “some of the people who have publicly criticized Zohran Mamdani have faced online harassment.” The source said the quotes themselves are real and that stock imagery “lets voters communicate their message while protecting New Yorkers’ safety.”
Mamdani campaign spokeswoman Dora Pekec didn’t buy the explanation and said of the ads: “After months of backroom scheming and millions of dollars in real estate-backed money, all the billionaires can come up with dare stock images and fake quotes.”
The unconventional PAC ads come as powerful business interests in the city are preparing to shell out millions of dollars via PACs to try to blunt Mamdani’s momentum ahead of November’s election. New Yorkers for a Better Future 25 has raised nearly $1 million just since mid-July, with a fourth of that cash coming from a consortium of business leaders led by hedge fund manager Ricky Sandler.
As first reported by The News earlier this month, New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 has also teamed up with Fix the City, by far the largest anti-Mamdani PAC operating in this year’s election, and the two groups are coordinating all political activities together, lending the latest ad spree additional weight.
A Fix the City spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday.
While he’s polling as the clear favorite to win November’s contest, Mamdani is facing off against Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Adams, both of whom are running as independents, as well as Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Fix the City and other outside spending groups are also pumping money into ads and other efforts to boost the candidacy of Cuomo, who’s polling as the most potent threat to Mamdani.
Besides the stock imagery issue, each of the New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 ads start out with something nice to say about Mamdani before questioning whether he has the chops to be mayor. One of the ads calls Mamdani “a good man with bad ideas,” while another says he has “a nice smile … but no experience.”
Jeff Leb, a veteran city politics operative who’s the PAC’s treasurer, said the ads are taking a less combative tone because “there’s too much negativity in politics today.”
“Zohran is a nice person, but his lack of experience and extreme positions, like eliminating testing for specialized high schools and cutting police officers and safety patrols, would harm New York City,” Leb said.
O’Brien Murray, a political strategist, said it’s “very unusual” to see attack ads include compliments. However, he said November’s mayoral election has a unique dynamic.
“It’s challenging to attack somebody when more than 40% of the voters are already for him,” Murray said, referring to polling as well as Mamdani’s victory in June’s Democratic mayoral primary. “So maybe you have to be nice to him and then say what the problem is.”