Why Bobby Jindal’s Bizarre Trick on His Kids Backfired

Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his bid for president with an odd family-video stunt on Wednesday. (Photo: Sean Gardener/Getty Images)

Collective jaws dropped on both sides of the political aisle Wednesday as Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal released a video featuring his three kids caught on hidden camera as part of his presidential campaign announcement.

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“Mommy and Daddy have been thinking and talking a lot about this, and we have decided we are going to run for president this year,” says Jindal in the video, in which he’s seated at a round patio table along with his wife, Supriya, and three kids, ages 8, 10, and 13. He’s partially obscured by a tree that apparently holds the secretly mounted camera used to film the awkward family scene.

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After his kids offer no audible response to his news, Mom asks, “What do you think about that?” Only then do the two boys, Shaan and Slade, give a thumbs-up (with no obvious reaction from Selia, the eldest). “Things are going to change a little bit,” continues Dad, who refers to himself and his wife in the third person (“Mommy and Daddy”) many times, despite his children being of school age. “We’re going to be busy, obviously, this year, traveling. And you’ll get the chance, if you behave, to go back to Iowa. Would you like that?” In a stilted conversation (viewable below), the kids say they would.

And then, the clincher, which got the biggest reaction: “If we move into the White House you can get a puppy,” says Jindal in a shorter video, part of an apparent hidden-camera series on his website. But he immediately follows the puppy promise with scoldings about how badly his kids took care of ill-fated fish and frogs.

Public reaction to the video was decidedly negative, with media coverage calling it “creepy,” “what may be the oddest campaign announcement video ever released,” “terrible,” and an “awkward start.”

And Twitter blew up with criticism (as if the trending#BobbyJindalIsSoWhite mockery hasn’t been enough):

Family therapist Paul Hokemeyer, meanwhile, found the premise of the video disturbing. “The video made me want to take a shower,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “It feels contrived and manipulative. It took what should have been a private family moment and turned it into a narcissistic and voyeuristic event.”

And he’s concerned with how the stunt will affect the kids — particularly the youngest. “While most 8-year-olds have developed a clear sense of self and autonomy, they still look to their parents for a sense of security and need their support,” he says. “The fact that his father used a hidden camera to advance his professional agenda could make the child question his father’s role in his life, as well as his father’s trustworthiness.”

The video, Hokemeyer adds, seems to have elicited the exact opposite of what Jindal was striving for. “Rather than coming across as a family man,” he says, “he appears contrived and insensitive to his family’s emotional needs.”

By using his kids as props, Jindal does indeed cross what many in the political world consider a sacred line — though politicians often use children to underscore their points. President Obama was widely criticized for surrounding himself with poster children when he signed a series of executive orders concerning gun control recently — just as a Republican was slammed (and ultimately resigned) over posting jabs about the president’s daughters on social media last year.

Hokemeyer notes that being in the public eye is tricky. “Kids [of public figures] in particular need to develop thick skin,” he says, adding that there does seem to be a silver lining in the Jindal-video disaster. “I’m impressed with how Mr. Jindal’s children responded to the news. They seem very well adjusted and unfazed by it,” he says. “Someone seems to have done a very good job thus far in raising emotionally healthy and well-adjusted children. Let’s hope the decision to create and use this video was an isolated event that can be chalked up to bad judgment — or bad campaign advice.”

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