Friday, November 9, 2007

LBJ Daisy ad:

Dear all,

Here is the advertisement used against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election. Part of its effectiveness is that it never used Goldwater's name, but obviously points to what Goldwater wrote about himself, that nuclear weapons would be part of a national defense in his administration.

It was only used once and might be regarded as an early instance of what we all now call "negative campaigning."

It still sends chills up my spine when I see it.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It is interesting to watch this ad in the context of the political ads which followed it, such as the "revolving door" ad during the Bush/Dukakis campaign and then even more recently the "Swift Boat" ads in the Bush/Kerry campaign. I feel that this, as was pointed out, might be even more powerful since it never mentions the opponents name, whereas the others tend to. However, it is obvious that the "revolving door" ad and others like it attempted to emulate the "Daisy" ad so closely that the "revolving door" ad ends with the statement, "Now Michael Dukakis says he wants to do for America what he's done for Massachusetts. America can't afford that risk!" which seems like an exact match to "the stakes are too high for you to stay home" at the end of the "Daisy" ad. It is fascinating to look at the development of campaign ads that can virtually decide an election.

-Peter Lubershane

Unknown said...

Johnson says that "we must either love each other, or we must die." At the same time, he wants to "make a world where all of God’s children can live.” Clearly Johnson opposes nuclear war with America's communist enemies and instead supports "love." Yet Johnson describes the people of the world as "God's children," a label that is clearly not used by communists to define themselves. By using such blatant religious language, Johnson is making a striking statement against communism. I wonder how he planned on reconciling this love for all with his limitation of it to God's children?

Claire Potter, Instructor said...

Holy shit. Gave me goosebumps.
-Ryan