If you’re a man in the Philadelphia area who’s inclined to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris but still not entirely sold on the idea, her team hopes you’ll listen to Duke, a Southwest Philadelphia resident and star of “She Can Do It,” a 30-second ad that begins airing on broadcast and cable television stations in the Philadelphia area on Thursday.

Sitting on a stoop, Duke tells someone off camera, “When I look at Kamala, I look at my aunt. I mean, we’ve got this Black lady, strong, who stands on business, who means what she says, is relatable. I see the empathy, that’s just, like, in their heart, the nature of a female.”

As footage of Harris flashes on screen, he adds: “She shows a lot of empathy when she speaks. Her actions — Kamala’s strong, she’s powerful. She stern, she means everything that she says. This November, I’m standing with Kamala.”

The ad is set to air during local broadcasts of Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball games, and during local cable ad breaks during TNT coverage of NBA games and its popular “Inside the NBA” pregame show, as well as on networks popular with Black viewers, including BET, OWN, and VH1. The ad is part of an ongoing $370 million national ad campaign that stretches from Labor Day to Election Day.

The message is clearly tailored to reach Black men in Pennsylvania — and any other man who may be wary of supporting a woman as the next president. (The Harris campaign officially calls them “persuadable voters.”) The spot comes as Harris trails former President Donald Trump among men by double digits in some recent polls and amid signs he’s chipping away at traditionally strong support for the Democratic Party among Black voters. Failure to sustain high levels of minority voter support in Pennsylvania could cost Harris the state if she can’t make up those losses with other groups.

But in a nod to the realities of modern media consumption and political advertising, the ad first surfaced on streaming media. During the Fox telecast of the Philadelphia Eagles – New York Giants NFL game last Sunday, certain viewers streaming the game on Hulu spotted the message — an example of how digital video advertising can be targeted, in this case to male viewers watching the game in the Philadelphia area. That’s how a traveling CBS News correspondent first spotted the ad — watching the game on the Hulu app Sunday afternoon while riding a train into Philadelphia.

Ed O’Keefe

Ed O’Keefe is CBS News senior White House and political correspondent. He previously worked for The Washington Post covering presidential campaigns, Congress and federal agencies. His primary focus is on President Biden, Vice President Harris and political issues across the country.

Kazan, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods.” The three-day summit in the city of Kazan covered the deepening of financial cooperation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, efforts to settle regional conflicts and expansion of the BRICS group of nations.

The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when it was founded in 2009 has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and several other countries have expressed interest in joining.

The summit was attended by leaders or representatives of 36 countries, highlighting the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its war in Ukraine. The Kremlin touted the summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia.

Speaking at what was dubbed the “BRICS Plus” session, which included countries that are considering joining the bloc, Putin accused the West of trying to stem the growing power of the Global South with “illegal unilateral sanctions, blatant protectionism, manipulation of currency and stock markets, and relentless foreign influence ostensibly promoting democracy, human rights, and the climate change agenda.”

“Such perverse methods and approaches — to put it bluntly — lead to the emergence of new conflicts and the aggravation of old disagreements,” Putin said. “One example of this is Ukraine, which is being used to create critical threats to Russia’s security, while ignoring our vital interests, our just concerns, and the infringement of the rights of Russian-speaking people.”

Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine more than two years ago, and Russian forces now occupy an estimated 20% of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, which Putin has claimed at various stages was either a response to NATO’s eastward expansion, or a defense of pro-Russian populations in eastern Ukraine.

Support from the U.S. and its NATO allies has helped Ukraine prevent Russia’s complete takeover, but many in the region fear the November U.S. presidential election could bring a second term for former President Donald Trump, who’s seen as more sympathetic to Putin and less likely to maintain current levels of support for Kyiv.

Russia has specifically pushed for the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to the global bank messaging network SWIFT, which would enable Moscow to dodge Western sanctions and trade with its partners — some of which are also heavily sanctioned by the U.S. and its allies — more easily.

In a joint declaration Wednesday, participants voiced concern about “the disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions,” and reiterated their commitment to enhancing financial cooperation within BRICS. They noted the benefits of “faster, low-cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimizing trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.”

China’s President Xi Jinping has emphasized the bloc’s role in ensuring global security. Xi noted that China and Brazil have put forward a peace plan for Ukraine and sought to rally broader international support for it. Ukraine has rejected the proposal.

“We should promote the de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible and pave the way for a political settlement,” Xi said Thursday.

Putin and Xi had announced a “no-limits” partnership weeks before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. Moscow declared its intention at the time to forge a new “democratic world order” with China. Putin and Xi met again twice earlier this year, in Beijing in May and at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July.

Russia’s cooperation with India also has flourished as New Delhi sees Moscow as a time-tested partner since the Cold War despite Russia’s close ties with India’s rival, China. While Western allies want New Delhi to be more active in persuading Moscow to end the fighting in Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement.

Putin, who held a series of bilateral meetings on the summit’s sidelines, was set to meet Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is making his first visit to Russia in more than two years. Guterres’s trip to Kazan drew an angry reaction from Kyiv.

Addressing the BRICS Plus session, Guterres urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan. “We need peace in Ukraine, a just peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions,” he said.

Russia’s Kremlin-controlled media touted the summit as a massive policy coup that left the West fearing the loss of its global clout. State TV shows and news bulletins underscored that BRICS countries account for about half the world’s population comprising the “global majority” and challenging Western “hegemony.”

TV hosts elaborately quoted Western media reports saying that the summit highlighted the failure to isolate Moscow. “The West, the U.S., Washington, Brussels, London ended up isolating themselves,” said Yevgeny Popov, host of a popular political talk show on state channel Rossiya 1.