LANSING, MI – GOP governor candidate Perry Johnson, an Oakland County entrepreneur and Republican donor, wants you to skip the Super Bowl halftime show.
He’s sharing his message using part of a $3 million ad buy, which includes two new television ads and a purchase in the Super Bowl pre-game broadcast.
The ad that will run before the Super Bowl, titled “Super Bowl Bunny,” will air through Sunday evening, encouraging viewers to change the channel during the halftime show from Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny.
Instead, Johnson argues Michiganders should watch a conservative alternative – the “All American Halftime Show” – sponsored by Turning Point USA, the grassroots political action network founded by late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
With text in one corner describing Johnson as a “conservative for governor,” the ad also shows him shaking hands with Kirk. It refers to Bad Bunny – depicted in the ad as a literal rabbit – as “Dust Bunny.”
“The NFL thinks this is the Bunny Bowl!” a narrator says.
The alternative halftime show will air on TPUSA’s social media channels on Feb. 8, and will feature Detroit musician Kid Rock, country stars Brantley Gilbert and Lee Brice and former “American Idol” contestant turned emerging country star Gabby Barrett.
Bad Bunny, whose given name is Benito Ocasio, has been dubbed the “King of Latin Trap,” and is wildly successful on the music charts, coming in as the most-streamed artist on Spotify globally with 19.8 billion streams, according to a Dec. 3, 2025 release by the music platform.
But the NFL’s choice to feature him has ignited controversy among conservative circles due to perceived slights against the Trump administration, including an acceptance speech at last Sunday’s Grammy awards where Ocasio declared “ICE out,” after winning album of the year.
Bad Bunny has also said he will not hold concerts in the contiguous U.S., for fear attendees could be targeted by immigration enforcement.
In response, Johnson said he’s encouraging people to “turn the channel on Bad Bunny.”
“Super Bowl Sunday is a time when millions of Americans gather together … and celebrate sport and our country ,” Johnson said. “What in the world happened to the NFL? Our message is simple: turn the channel away from Bad Bunny and watch the Turning Point All American Show with Kid Rock instead.”
Johnson said the ad was placed in the pre-game broadcast, rather than the Super Bowl, to prevent ads playing during the halftime show.
When asked if there’s any concern that NBC would hesitate to run an ad asking viewers to turn the channel on its own broadcast, Johnson’s campaign responded that they “do not know how NBC will handle” the ad, but “Perry will protect his freedom of speech as a candidate for public office.”
The ad is first scheduled to air on NBC at 6 p.m. tomorrow in Detroit, which could be an initial test.
The campaign said it will also run statewide on Fox News starting tomorrow.
The ad is part of a greater $3 million statewide ad buy through Feb. 23, which includes television, radio and online advertising.
A second ad, titled “4747,” will also begin airing immediately and will run for two weeks.
In it, Johnson promises to eliminate the state income tax, which he said would allow the state to return $4,747 to Michigan families.
The 4.25% state income tax is Michigan’s single largest source of revenue, but Johnson pitched getting rid of it by cutting “just two cents off every state discretionary dollar spent, and by eliminating waste and incompetence in our government.”
Michigan state House Republicans have floated the idea of cutting the income tax rate from 4.25% to 4.05%, passing a bill in April 2025 with some bipartisan support that has not moved through the Senate.
“I am running for Governor because I am uniquely qualified to use my experience bringing quality and efficiency to 60,000 businesses to cut state government spending,” Johnson said. “This will allow the state to return $4,747 to the average working family through the elimination of the Michigan Income Tax.”
Johnson launched his gubernatorial bid in late January, after previous unsuccessful runs for governor in 2022 and president in 2023.
He joins a crowded Republican primary of seven with no shortage of established and high-profile candidates. The large number of funds he’s put into previous campaigns could serve to shake up the race, with a promise to spend $9 million over the next 60 days.
Johnson is the founder of a series of businesses bearing his name, including a Troy-based quality management certification business he said operates in eight countries.
He’s also a motivational speaker who’s traveled internationally teaching manufacturing companies to improve their processes, and became known for making a fortune doing quality control in the auto industry,
He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is the author of several texts on international quality standards and certification.
In 2022, he sought the GOP nomination to run against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is now term-limited. Later the same year, he was disqualified from the governor’s race, one of five Republican governor candidates caught in a massive fraud scandal for not having at least 15,000 valid signatures from qualified voters to qualify for the primary ballot.
Paid petition circulators for the signature collection firms his campaign hired were accused of faking the signatures of nearly 7,000 voters.
Johnson sued in the Michigan Court of Appeals, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He spent more than $7 million of his own money over the course of his campaign.
In 2023, Johnson announced he would consider a run for U.S. president, also spending $175,000 to run ads during the Super Bowl that year in four media markets. He later dropped out of the race, after failing to earn the minimum support in enough polls to qualify for a first or second GOP debate.
Other Republican candidates now in the race are U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township; Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township; former Republican House Speaker Tom Leonard, former Republican Attorney General Mike Cox, Ax MI Tax Executive Director Karla Wagner, Pastor Ralph Rebandt and business owner Anthony Hudson.