Ebony and Ivory

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The Democratic presidential campaigns of John Edwards and John Kerry have one thing in common: the racial make-up of their TV ads depends on where you watch them. An Edwards ad about job losses "running in Ohio... would be identical to one it ran in South Carolina last month if not for one thing" -- in the Ohio ad, the factory worker is white, but in South Carolina, the worker was black. A Kerry ad about his military record featured a white crew mate in New Hampsire, Iowa and other states, but was revised to feature a black crew mate before airing in South Carolina and Missouri. Both campaigns denied the changes were made to reflect states' racial compositions.