Brown airs first TV ad of Senate general election campaign

By Globe Staff

For the first time since winning the primary, Republican US Senate candidate Scott Brown today began airing a television commercial, a 30 second spot that invokes the words, images, and ideas of a Democratic icon, the late President John F. Kennedy.

The ad uses old black and white newsreel footage of Kennedy as he pushed for tax cuts in 1962 and then dissolves into Brown - who first is shown in black and white then fades into color - while he quotes from the same speech, according to Brown's campaign.

In a statement, the Brown campaign said the ad "makes the point that Kennedy and Brown are two different people, from different political parties and different eras, but with the same message: lower taxes will create more jobs.''

Brown and his Democratic rival, Attorney General Martha Coakley, have been sparring over tax policy in recent days.

Brown and Coakley are running to fill the Senate vacancy created this August when President Kennedy's younger brother, Edward M. Kennedy, died. Independent candidate Joseph L. Kennedy is also running.

Coakley has not aired any television ads in the general election campaign.