AUSTIN – Bill Hillsman has a history of helping political long shots beat the odds, which is why he's on Kinky Friedman's team.

The Minnesota ad whiz capitalized on Jesse Ventura's outsized personality with commercials that catapulted him into the Governor's Mansion in Minnesota.

He made an obscure Minnesota professor named Paul Wellstone a household name – and a U.S. senator. And in this year's Senate race in Connecticut, his quirky TV spots helped lift a political unknown over veteran Joe Lieberman.

So when a kinder, gentler Kinky recently launched his first TV ads of the fall campaign, likening himself to the "Good Shepherd" from the Bible, it was Mr. Hillsman behind the camera.

"My theory is, never change a candidate," he said. "I've covered up some flaws of candidates on occasion, but I'm not going to put a candidate through finishing school or fundamentally change them."

His task was made all the more difficult this week with revelations of insensitive remarks from Mr. Friedman's past, including a 1997 newspaper interview in which he said "I applaud teenage suicide" and his use of the n-word in a comedy act 26 years ago at a Houston club.

Mr. Friedman said that he was being satirical and that his remarks are being taken out of context. He advised those who want a politically correct candidate to vote for one of his opponents.

Political filmmaker Paul Stekler said Mr. Hillsman has proved adept at finding the inner winner in the most unlikely political underdog.

"When he's on, he's fabulous," said Mr. Stekler, who teaches politics and film at the University of Texas at Austin.

But given Mr. Friedman's penchant for crude humor and irreverent comments, Mr. Stekler wonders whether the ad whiz has met his match.

"Kinky is so off the charts that I'm not sure even Hillsman can figure out how to use him," he said.

Mr. Hillsman, though, said that when he met Mr. Friedman in Austin 18 months ago, he saw another potential political miracle in the making: a politically incorrect mystery writer and former lead singer for the Texas Jewboys who wanted to be governor.

"All the elements are there," he said.

In a campaign about changing the political culture, he figured, this was definitely the anti-politician to do it.

A former 1960s anti-war protester-turned-Madison Avenue adverting executive, Mr. Hillsman is a 52-year-old maverick who reads Rolling Stone, listens to jazz and said he sees a "spiritual" dimension to Mr. Friedman's upstart campaign.

As a guiding principle, he once said, "The worst thing in advertising is to be boring."

So, he's had candidates pose shirtless and play dead inside a chalk outline.

He catapulted Mr. Wellstone onto the national political stage with a whimsical spot in which the political upstart wanders into the campaign office of the Republican incumbent, irritating his rival's staff as he searches for his opponent to debate the issues.

In his first round of TV commercials for the Friedman campaign in December, Mr. Hillsman featured Kinky action figures – a motif that worked well for Mr. Ventura in 1998. In that race, a Ventura action figure battled a Ken doll dubbed "Evil Special Interest Man."

The new spot that began airing last week features Mr. Friedman with some of the abandoned dogs and horses he cares for on his Central Texas ranch, comparing himself to the Good Shepherd in the New Testament.

The mood is quiet, almost solemn – a stark contrast to the wisecracking, sometimes offensive comic that is Mr. Friedman's public persona.

With far less money than Republican Gov. Rick Perry and independent challenger Carole Keeton Strayhorn, each of whom is spending $1 million a week on television ads, the Friedman camp is counting on Mr. Hillsman's ads to cut through the clutter.

As for the politically incendiary comments from Mr. Friedman now emerging as the campaign enters its final weeks, Mr. Hillsman notes that Mr. Ventura wasn't hurt when he advocated legalizing prostitution and drug use.

"In Texas, you have the most independent-minded people in the country, the least politically correct," the ad maker said.

But Mr. Stekler of UT noted that Mr. Friedman lacks the résumé of Mr. Ventura, who had military experience and was a suburban mayor before running for governor.

"Hillsman's challenge is that Kinky must become someone who people think of as a viable, believable governor," he said.

Mr. Hillsman won't discuss the ads he has prepared for the remainder of the campaign. But he said the goal is to catch the national wave of anti-incumbent sentiment and the desire for change.

"You say to yourself, 'Do you have somebody who can really tap into this?' " And yes, we do," he said. "This would be a much bigger upset than Ventura's, but the elements are all there."

E-mail wslater@dallasnews.com

Bill Hillsman, Kinky Friedman's advertising guru, is known for making creative campaign ads that fit his unorthodox candidates. Here's a sample of his work:

Paul Wellstone (U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, 1990)

College professor Wellstone defeated a Republican incumbent with offbeat ads that underscored the candidate's outsider status.

Jesse Ventura (Minnesota gubernatorial race, 1998)

Playing off "The Body," his professional wrestler nickname, Mr. Ventura posed as Rodin's "The Thinker."

John Hickenlooper (Denver mayoral race, 2003)

Promising to bring change to Denver, Mr. Hickenlooper, a political novice, poked fun at his nerdy persona by walking downtown streets wearing a change belt.

Ned Lamont (Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Connecticut, 2006)

Casting political unknown Lamont as an underdog helped defeat incumbent Joe Lieberman.