Click here to watch "Thanks For The Memories!"

A left-leaning advocacy group released an ad today in almost 400,000 hotel rooms across the country, including 5,000 in the Twin Cities area, tweaking conservatives for what the group contends has been eight years of "failure" -- most notably Republicans’ response to Hurricane Katrina.

Although the sarcastic "Thanks For The Memories!" is running nationwide, the target audience is primarily the attendees and participants of the GOP national convention. The ad opens with the text, "To the conservatives gathered in St. Paul: Thanks for the memories!" It uses the song lyrics and dismal images -- including a flood-stricken New Orleans -- to "thank" the Republicans for the economy's downward spiral. "Thanks for the memories... of sentimental verse... nothing in my purse..." the female vocalist sings as a gasoline pump and a foreclosure sign come up on the screen. The 30-second spot concludes with another Katrina reference: "You've done a heckuva job!" but "We'll take it from here."

Toby Chaudhuri, communications director for the group, said bringing the images of Hurricane Katrina front and center -- it is the first image in the ad -- was an obvious decision in light of Hurricane Gustav's impact on this year’s convention. The storm "has helped the made-for-TV show, giving the failed president and vice president a reason to stay out of town," Chaudhuri said. "Ten incumbent Republican senators already had decided that absence was the better part of valor.”

Chaudhuri doesn't have much faith in the GOP and has every intention of letting the conventioneers know that: "We're going straight into the lion’s den to remind delegates about the last eight years of failures. It will be difficult to salvage the Republican Party. Even Gustav is more of a haunted reminder of the bungled response to Katrina than a do-over."

The group bought airtime with a cable carrier that's exclusive to hotels, known as the Hotel Networks. It was an effective way to target Republicans visiting the Twin Cities, Chaudhuri said.