HIST 221 Chapter commercials: HIST 221 Chapter : HIST 221 Chapter : Commercials Living Room Candidate 1952 - 1992
30 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
1952
Now is the time for all good Americans to aid their country,
vote for Eisenhower
-
President Harry S. Truman entered 1952 with his popularity
plummeting. The Korean War was dragging into its third
year, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade
was stirring public fears of an encroaching "Red Menace,"
and the disclosure of widespread corruption among federal
employees rocked the administration. After losing the New
Hampshire primary to Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver,
who had chaired a nationally televised investigation of
organized crime in 1951, President Truman announced on
March 29, 1952, that he would not seek re-election. Truman
threw his support behind Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson,
who repeatedly declined to run but was eventually drafted
as the Democratic nominee on the strength of his eloquent
keynote speech at the convention.
-
Stevenson proved to be no match for the Republican
nominee, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played a key
role in planning the Allied victory in World War II. A poll in
March 1952 found Eisenhower the most admired living
American, and in November he won a landslide victory on
the basis of his pledge to clean up "the mess in Washington"
and end the Korean War.
-
Eisenhower spots were placed before or after popular TV
shows such as I Love Lucy which would reach more viewers
and at a lower cost than 30 minute speeches.
-
1956
You will see young men watching the games and enjoying
themselves
-
Four years ago it was a different story, they were involved in
war
-
One day a year they will remember the war - on election day
-
They will be voting the road to peace for the next four years
-
Asked people what they were looking for in a candidate and
that they would vote for Eisenhower
-
For President Eisenhower, the only true emergency of his
first term was the heart attack he suffered in September
1955. After his doctor pronounced him fully recovered in
February 1956, Eisenhower announced his decision to run
for re-election. The Democrats set up a replay of the 1952
contest by nominating Adlai Stevenson. The result was an
even greater Republican landslide. Eisenhower was a
popular incumbent president who had ended the Korean
War. Two world crises helped cement his lead in the final
days of the campaign: the Soviet Union invaded Hungary,
and Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in an effort to
take over the Suez Canal. Eisenhower kept the United States
out of both conflicts. As is traditional during a military crisis,
American voters rallied behind their president. The events
also undermined two of Stevenson’s key positions: the
suspension of hydrogen-bomb testing and the elimination of
the military draft.
-
He was portrayed as an ordinary American
-
Only way to win WWIII is to prevent it
-
"Peace, Prosperity, and Progress"
-
1960
In 1960, America was enjoying a period of relative
prosperity. With the exception of the stirrings of the modern
civil rights movement, domestic turbulence was low, and the
primary foreign threat seemed to be the intensifying Cold
War. Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, and
installed a Communist regime just ninety miles off the coast
of Florida. In May 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot
down inside the Soviet Union, further intensifying tensions
between the superpowers. The Republican nominee, Vice
President Richard Nixon, was enjoying a growing reputation
for his foreign policy skills after his televised "kitchen
debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959. The
Democratic nominee, charismatic Massachusetts Senator
John F. Kennedy, was attempting to become the first
Catholic president and, at age 43, the youngest man ever
elected to the office. Nixon argued that he had the maturity
and experience to deal with the Communists, while Kennedy
attempted to turn his youth into an advantage, proclaiming
in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, "We
stand today on the edge of a new frontier."
-
Offering new American leadership
-
Economic growth means strength and vitality, which would
make America a greater world power
-
Not meeting their obligations to Americans, people are
starving
-
Competing with the USSR to be better
-
Advocating for Civil Rights
-
1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took office following John
F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, enhanced his
image as a tough legislator by winning a hard-fought battle
to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
guaranteed African-Americans access to all public facilities,
and banned discrimination by race, religion, or sex. The
Vietnam War was escalating, but had yet to become a real
liability for Johnson.
-
The margin of Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964 was partly
a repudiation of Barry Goldwater’s extreme right-wing
views. Goldwater, an Arizona senator and author of the
best-selling book The Conscience of a Conservative, won the
Republican nomination after a bitter primary campaign
against moderate New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In
his acceptance speech, Goldwater made the infamous
statement, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The
assertion, meant as a defense of conservatism, merged in
the public consciousness with statements in which
Goldwater advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in
Vietnam and argued that Social Security be made voluntary.
-
LBJ capitalized on preserving JFK's legacy
-
1968
By 1968, one of the most turbulent years in American
history, the number of American troops in Vietnam had
risen from 16,000 (in 1963) to more than 500,000. Nightly
TV coverage of the "living-room war" ignited an antiwar
movement. After a weak showing in the New Hampshire
primary, President Johnson shocked the country on March
31 by announcing that he would not seek reelection. Just
four days later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated,
sparking riots in more than 100 cities. In June, Robert F.
Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California
primary. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who entered the
race late and had not won any primaries, became the
Democratic nominee at a tumultuous convention in Chicago
marred by disorder inside the convention hall and by the
televised spectacle of violent confrontations between police
and antiwar protesters.
-
The Republicans nominated Richard M. Nixon, who was
attempting a political comeback after losing the 1960
presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial
race. Nixon claimed to speak for the "silent majority" of law-
abiding citizens whose voices were presumably drowned out
amidst the social upheaval, and he promised a return to the
stability of the Eisenhower years.
-
Discontent with major-party candidates led to an
independent run by Alabama Governor George Wallace,
who waged the most successful third-party candidacy since
1924.
-
Platform of being free from domestic violence
-
"Vote like your world depended on it" - Nixon
-
1972
In 1971, President Nixon’s approval rating fell below 50
percent. Despite his 1968 promises to end the Vietnam War,
the conflict was dragging on. At home, inflation and
unemployment were rising. Nixon restored his popularity
through several actions: he took unprecedented diplomatic
trips to China and Russia; stepped up efforts to end the war
by ordering the bombing of Hanoi; instituted wage and price
controls; and ended the draft, partly because of the recent
lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18. Nixon’s opponent,
South Dakota Senator George McGovern, who won his
party’s nomination with a grassroots campaign sparked by
the antiwar movement, called for withdrawal from Vietnam
and a significant reduction in military spending. McGovern
named as his running mate Missouri Senator Thomas
Eagleton, who, shortly after the convention, revealed that
he had been hospitalized for depression and had received
shock therapy. McGovern dropped him from the ticket and
replaced him with former ambassador R. Sargent Shriver.
The incident created an impression of ineptitude. McGovern
was also unable to convince the public of any connection
between the Nixon administration and the June break-in at
the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
Watergate apartment complex.
-
The attack ad “McGovern Defense,” was released by the
Nixon campaign under the banner of the quasi-independent
group “Democrats for Nixon.” All of Nixon’s advertising was
overseen by his aide H.R. Haldeman, a former advertising
executive with J. Walter Thompson. This ad is one of the
most effective incarnations of a favorite Republican theme;
that the Republicans represent military strength and that
Democrats cannot be trusted as commander in chief, partly
because they would cut defense spending. By using plastic
toys when describing McGovern’s plans and then cutting to
real footage of President Nixon on a battleship, the ad
implies that only Nixon can be taken seriously as
commander in chief. The other key concept expressed by
the ad is the notion that the Democratic candidate is
dangerously liberal. The ad effectively uses the words of
McGovern’s Democratic rival Hubert Humphrey to suggest
that McGovern is so far out of the mainstream that even
voters from his own party are supporting Nixon. This ad
strategy was a response to a demographic shift in the
electorate, with working-class voters moving towards the
Republican Party. The effectiveness of the ad is proven by
the fact that it was virtually remade in two subsequent
campaigns, as “Tank Ride” for George H.W. Bush in 1988,
and “Weapons Florida” for George W. Bush in 2004.
-
1976
On August 9, 1974, after a Senate investigation revealed his
direct involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate break-
in, Richard Nixon became the first president in American
history to resign from office. Nixon was succeeded by Gerald
Ford, who had been appointed vice president after a bribery
scandal forced Spiro Agnew’s resignation in October 1973.
These scandals and the televised Watergate hearings, which
resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of 25 Nixon
administration officials, shattered the public's trust in the
government. In a 1974 poll, 43 percent of respondents said
that they had "hardly any" faith in the executive branch. As
a result, the 1976 election was dominated by issues of
integrity and character. Hoping to put the Watergate affair
to rest, President Ford unconditionally pardoned Nixon in
September 1974, but the move hurt Ford’s political
standing. Ford won the Republican nomination only after
fighting off a strong challenge from Ronald Reagan.
-
The Democrats nominated Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter,
a former naval officer and peanut farmer. Carter, who
promised, "I will never tell a lie to the American people," ran
a brilliant campaign as an outsider, offering a fresh change
from Washington politics as usual.
-
1980
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed
the American embassy in Tehran. Protesting the entry of the
deposed Shah into the United States, they held 53
Americans hostage. For the next twelve months, the hostage
situation was an ongoing American nightmare magnified by
constant media attention. Confidence in President Carter
eroded as a result of the Iran crisis, an oil shortage and
resultant increase in gas prices, and 18 percent inflation.
Carter’s chances were further damaged by a tough primary
battle against Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.
-
While Carter had been the fresh face of 1976, this year the
role of Washington outsider was played by the Republican
nominee, Ronald Reagan. A former Hollywood actor who
became governor of California in 1966, Reagan made a brief
run for the presidency in 1968, and nearly beat Gerald Ford
for the Republican nomination in 1976. Reagan’s landslide
victory was due not only to Carter’s problems, but also to a
demographic shift toward an aging population that was
growing more conservative. Carter became the first
Democratic incumbent to lose the presidency since Grover
Cleveland in 1888. In a further indignity, the Iranians waited
until the moment of Reagan’s inauguration to release the
hostages.
-
1984
In 1984, the economy was in an upswing. Oil prices were
low, interest rates were high, and the lurking problem of the
mounting federal deficit caused little public concern. The
popular President Reagan was earning the label "the Teflon
president" for his ability to escape unscathed from setbacks.
In October 1983, 241 marines were killed in a terrorist
attack in Beirut. The debacle was eclipsed days later by a
marine invasion of Grenada, purportedly to save a small
group of medical students from the island’s new leftist
government. Public confidence in the military was restored.
-
The unenviable task of running against Reagan fell to former
Vice President Walter Mondale. Mondale made two bold
choices in his campaign, both of which backfired. First, he
selected a woman, New York Representative Geraldine
Ferraro, as his running mate. Media scrutiny of her
husband’s finances put Ferraro on the defensive. Second,
Mondale announced in his acceptance speech that he would
raise taxes to fight the deficit. He missed the opportunity to
point out that a day earlier Reagan had quietly signed a bill
raising taxes by $50 billion. Reagan succeeded in tagging
Mondale as a typical free-spending Democrat, and won the
most lopsided electoral victory since 1936.
-
1988
Ronald Reagan—the first president since Eisenhower to
serve two full terms—had presided over a renewed national
optimism, but there were dark clouds on the horizon as his
presidency drew to a close. The federal deficit was soaring
out of control. The revelation that profits from American
sales of weapons to Iran were illegally routed to the
Nicaraguan contras spawned a major scandal. Wall Street
was in turmoil following several insider-trading scandals and
the October 1987 stock market collapse. The stage was set
for one of the most bitter presidential campaigns in recent
history: Vice President George Bush, who portrayed himself
as the rightful heir to the Reagan revolution, versus
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who offered a
traditionally Democratic vision of increased government
spending on health care, child care, education, and housing.
The Bush campaign used brutal television advertising to
portray Dukakis as an ineffective liberal who would gut the
country’s defense system and let convicted murderers out
of prison. Hoping voters would dismiss the attacks as unfair,
Dukakis refused to counterattack until late in the campaign.
By then it was too late.
-
1992
George Bush, the incumbent president, enjoyed approval
ratings near 90 percent following America’s decisive military
victory in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Many leading
Democrats, including New York Governor Mario Cuomo,
declined to run, and the party’s nomination went to Bill
Clinton, governor of Arkansas. By early 1992, the U.S.
economy was faltering, and Clinton’s campaign decided to
focus almost exclusively on this issue. A prominently placed
sign in Clinton’s campaign headquarters read "It’s the
economy, stupid!" Ironically, because of the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1989, which the Republicans took credit for, the
Cold War was not an important issue during the campaign,
and the Democrats were able to keep the emphasis on
domestic concerns. The importance of the economy as an
issue was amplified by the surprisingly successful third-party
candidacy of billionaire Ross Perot, whose campaign
concentrated on deficit reduction.
-
Commercials: Living Room Candidate 1952 - 1992
Monday, March 26, 2018
2:08 PM
1952
Now is the time for all good Americans to aid their country,
vote for Eisenhower
-
President Harry S. Truman entered 1952 with his popularity
plummeting. The Korean War was dragging into its third
year, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade
was stirring public fears of an encroaching "Red Menace,"
and the disclosure of widespread corruption among federal
employees rocked the administration. After losing the New
Hampshire primary to Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver,
who had chaired a nationally televised investigation of
organized crime in 1951, President Truman announced on
March 29, 1952, that he would not seek re-election. Truman
threw his support behind Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson,
who repeatedly declined to run but was eventually drafted
as the Democratic nominee on the strength of his eloquent
keynote speech at the convention.
-
Stevenson proved to be no match for the Republican
nominee, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played a key
role in planning the Allied victory in World War II. A poll in
March 1952 found Eisenhower the most admired living
American, and in November he won a landslide victory on
the basis of his pledge to clean up "the mess in Washington"
and end the Korean War.
-
Eisenhower spots were placed before or after popular TV
shows such as I Love Lucy which would reach more viewers
and at a lower cost than 30 minute speeches.
-
1956
You will see young men watching the games and enjoying
themselves
-
Four years ago it was a different story, they were involved in
war
-
One day a year they will remember the war - on election day
-
They will be voting the road to peace for the next four years
-
Asked people what they were looking for in a candidate and
that they would vote for Eisenhower
-
For President Eisenhower, the only true emergency of his
first term was the heart attack he suffered in September
1955. After his doctor pronounced him fully recovered in
February 1956, Eisenhower announced his decision to run
for re-election. The Democrats set up a replay of the 1952
contest by nominating Adlai Stevenson. The result was an
even greater Republican landslide. Eisenhower was a
popular incumbent president who had ended the Korean
War. Two world crises helped cement his lead in the final
days of the campaign: the Soviet Union invaded Hungary,
and Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in an effort to
take over the Suez Canal. Eisenhower kept the United States
out of both conflicts. As is traditional during a military crisis,
American voters rallied behind their president. The events
also undermined two of Stevenson’s key positions: the
suspension of hydrogen-bomb testing and the elimination of
the military draft.
-
He was portrayed as an ordinary American
-
Only way to win WWIII is to prevent it
-
"Peace, Prosperity, and Progress"
-
1960
In 1960, America was enjoying a period of relative
prosperity. With the exception of the stirrings of the modern
civil rights movement, domestic turbulence was low, and the
primary foreign threat seemed to be the intensifying Cold
War. Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, and
installed a Communist regime just ninety miles off the coast
of Florida. In May 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot
down inside the Soviet Union, further intensifying tensions
between the superpowers. The Republican nominee, Vice
President Richard Nixon, was enjoying a growing reputation
for his foreign policy skills after his televised "kitchen
debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959. The
Democratic nominee, charismatic Massachusetts Senator
John F. Kennedy, was attempting to become the first
Catholic president and, at age 43, the youngest man ever
elected to the office. Nixon argued that he had the maturity
and experience to deal with the Communists, while Kennedy
attempted to turn his youth into an advantage, proclaiming
in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, "We
stand today on the edge of a new frontier."
-
Offering new American leadership
-
Economic growth means strength and vitality, which would
make America a greater world power
-
Not meeting their obligations to Americans, people are
starving
-
Competing with the USSR to be better
-
Advocating for Civil Rights
-
1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took office following John
F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, enhanced his
image as a tough legislator by winning a hard-fought battle
to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
guaranteed African-Americans access to all public facilities,
and banned discrimination by race, religion, or sex. The
Vietnam War was escalating, but had yet to become a real
liability for Johnson.
-
The margin of Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964 was partly
a repudiation of Barry Goldwater’s extreme right-wing
views. Goldwater, an Arizona senator and author of the
best-selling book The Conscience of a Conservative, won the
Republican nomination after a bitter primary campaign
against moderate New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In
his acceptance speech, Goldwater made the infamous
statement, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The
assertion, meant as a defense of conservatism, merged in
the public consciousness with statements in which
Goldwater advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in
Vietnam and argued that Social Security be made voluntary.
-
LBJ capitalized on preserving JFK's legacy
-
1968
By 1968, one of the most turbulent years in American
history, the number of American troops in Vietnam had
risen from 16,000 (in 1963) to more than 500,000. Nightly
TV coverage of the "living-room war" ignited an antiwar
movement. After a weak showing in the New Hampshire
primary, President Johnson shocked the country on March
31 by announcing that he would not seek reelection. Just
four days later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated,
sparking riots in more than 100 cities. In June, Robert F.
Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California
primary. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who entered the
race late and had not won any primaries, became the
Democratic nominee at a tumultuous convention in Chicago
marred by disorder inside the convention hall and by the
televised spectacle of violent confrontations between police
and antiwar protesters.
-
The Republicans nominated Richard M. Nixon, who was
attempting a political comeback after losing the 1960
presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial
race. Nixon claimed to speak for the "silent majority" of law-
abiding citizens whose voices were presumably drowned out
amidst the social upheaval, and he promised a return to the
stability of the Eisenhower years.
-
Discontent with major-party candidates led to an
independent run by Alabama Governor George Wallace,
who waged the most successful third-party candidacy since
1924.
-
Platform of being free from domestic violence
-
"Vote like your world depended on it" - Nixon
-
1972
In 1971, President Nixon’s approval rating fell below 50
percent. Despite his 1968 promises to end the Vietnam War,
the conflict was dragging on. At home, inflation and
unemployment were rising. Nixon restored his popularity
through several actions: he took unprecedented diplomatic
trips to China and Russia; stepped up efforts to end the war
by ordering the bombing of Hanoi; instituted wage and price
controls; and ended the draft, partly because of the recent
lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18. Nixon’s opponent,
South Dakota Senator George McGovern, who won his
party’s nomination with a grassroots campaign sparked by
the antiwar movement, called for withdrawal from Vietnam
and a significant reduction in military spending. McGovern
named as his running mate Missouri Senator Thomas
Eagleton, who, shortly after the convention, revealed that
he had been hospitalized for depression and had received
shock therapy. McGovern dropped him from the ticket and
replaced him with former ambassador R. Sargent Shriver.
The incident created an impression of ineptitude. McGovern
was also unable to convince the public of any connection
between the Nixon administration and the June break-in at
the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
Watergate apartment complex.
-
The attack ad “McGovern Defense,” was released by the
Nixon campaign under the banner of the quasi-independent
group “Democrats for Nixon.” All of Nixon’s advertising was
overseen by his aide H.R. Haldeman, a former advertising
executive with J. Walter Thompson. This ad is one of the
most effective incarnations of a favorite Republican theme;
that the Republicans represent military strength and that
Democrats cannot be trusted as commander in chief, partly
because they would cut defense spending. By using plastic
toys when describing McGovern’s plans and then cutting to
real footage of President Nixon on a battleship, the ad
implies that only Nixon can be taken seriously as
commander in chief. The other key concept expressed by
the ad is the notion that the Democratic candidate is
dangerously liberal. The ad effectively uses the words of
McGovern’s Democratic rival Hubert Humphrey to suggest
that McGovern is so far out of the mainstream that even
voters from his own party are supporting Nixon. This ad
strategy was a response to a demographic shift in the
electorate, with working-class voters moving towards the
Republican Party. The effectiveness of the ad is proven by
the fact that it was virtually remade in two subsequent
campaigns, as “Tank Ride” for George H.W. Bush in 1988,
and “Weapons Florida” for George W. Bush in 2004.
-
1976
On August 9, 1974, after a Senate investigation revealed his
direct involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate break-
in, Richard Nixon became the first president in American
history to resign from office. Nixon was succeeded by Gerald
Ford, who had been appointed vice president after a bribery
scandal forced Spiro Agnew’s resignation in October 1973.
These scandals and the televised Watergate hearings, which
resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of 25 Nixon
administration officials, shattered the public's trust in the
government. In a 1974 poll, 43 percent of respondents said
that they had "hardly any" faith in the executive branch. As
a result, the 1976 election was dominated by issues of
integrity and character. Hoping to put the Watergate affair
to rest, President Ford unconditionally pardoned Nixon in
September 1974, but the move hurt Ford’s political
standing. Ford won the Republican nomination only after
fighting off a strong challenge from Ronald Reagan.
-
The Democrats nominated Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter,
a former naval officer and peanut farmer. Carter, who
promised, "I will never tell a lie to the American people," ran
a brilliant campaign as an outsider, offering a fresh change
from Washington politics as usual.
-
1980
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed
the American embassy in Tehran. Protesting the entry of the
deposed Shah into the United States, they held 53
Americans hostage. For the next twelve months, the hostage
situation was an ongoing American nightmare magnified by
constant media attention. Confidence in President Carter
eroded as a result of the Iran crisis, an oil shortage and
resultant increase in gas prices, and 18 percent inflation.
Carter’s chances were further damaged by a tough primary
battle against Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.
-
While Carter had been the fresh face of 1976, this year the
role of Washington outsider was played by the Republican
nominee, Ronald Reagan. A former Hollywood actor who
became governor of California in 1966, Reagan made a brief
run for the presidency in 1968, and nearly beat Gerald Ford
for the Republican nomination in 1976. Reagan’s landslide
victory was due not only to Carter’s problems, but also to a
demographic shift toward an aging population that was
growing more conservative. Carter became the first
Democratic incumbent to lose the presidency since Grover
Cleveland in 1888. In a further indignity, the Iranians waited
until the moment of Reagan’s inauguration to release the
hostages.
-
1984
In 1984, the economy was in an upswing. Oil prices were
low, interest rates were high, and the lurking problem of the
mounting federal deficit caused little public concern. The
popular President Reagan was earning the label "the Teflon
president" for his ability to escape unscathed from setbacks.
In October 1983, 241 marines were killed in a terrorist
attack in Beirut. The debacle was eclipsed days later by a
marine invasion of Grenada, purportedly to save a small
group of medical students from the island’s new leftist
government. Public confidence in the military was restored.
-
The unenviable task of running against Reagan fell to former
Vice President Walter Mondale. Mondale made two bold
choices in his campaign, both of which backfired. First, he
selected a woman, New York Representative Geraldine
Ferraro, as his running mate. Media scrutiny of her
husband’s finances put Ferraro on the defensive. Second,
Mondale announced in his acceptance speech that he would
raise taxes to fight the deficit. He missed the opportunity to
point out that a day earlier Reagan had quietly signed a bill
raising taxes by $50 billion. Reagan succeeded in tagging
Mondale as a typical free-spending Democrat, and won the
most lopsided electoral victory since 1936.
-
1988
Ronald Reagan—the first president since Eisenhower to
serve two full terms—had presided over a renewed national
optimism, but there were dark clouds on the horizon as his
presidency drew to a close. The federal deficit was soaring
out of control. The revelation that profits from American
sales of weapons to Iran were illegally routed to the
Nicaraguan contras spawned a major scandal. Wall Street
was in turmoil following several insider-trading scandals and
the October 1987 stock market collapse. The stage was set
for one of the most bitter presidential campaigns in recent
history: Vice President George Bush, who portrayed himself
as the rightful heir to the Reagan revolution, versus
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who offered a
traditionally Democratic vision of increased government
spending on health care, child care, education, and housing.
The Bush campaign used brutal television advertising to
portray Dukakis as an ineffective liberal who would gut the
country’s defense system and let convicted murderers out
of prison. Hoping voters would dismiss the attacks as unfair,
Dukakis refused to counterattack until late in the campaign.
By then it was too late.
-
1992
George Bush, the incumbent president, enjoyed approval
ratings near 90 percent following America’s decisive military
victory in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Many leading
Democrats, including New York Governor Mario Cuomo,
declined to run, and the party’s nomination went to Bill
Clinton, governor of Arkansas. By early 1992, the U.S.
economy was faltering, and Clinton’s campaign decided to
focus almost exclusively on this issue. A prominently placed
sign in Clinton’s campaign headquarters read "It’s the
economy, stupid!" Ironically, because of the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1989, which the Republicans took credit for, the
Cold War was not an important issue during the campaign,
and the Democrats were able to keep the emphasis on
domestic concerns. The importance of the economy as an
issue was amplified by the surprisingly successful third-party
candidacy of billionaire Ross Perot, whose campaign
concentrated on deficit reduction.
-
Commercials: Living Room Candidate 1952 - 1992
Monday, March 26, 2018
2:08 PM
1952
Now is the time for all good Americans to aid their country,
vote for Eisenhower
-
President Harry S. Truman entered 1952 with his popularity
plummeting. The Korean War was dragging into its third
year, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade
was stirring public fears of an encroaching "Red Menace,"
and the disclosure of widespread corruption among federal
employees rocked the administration. After losing the New
Hampshire primary to Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver,
who had chaired a nationally televised investigation of
organized crime in 1951, President Truman announced on
March 29, 1952, that he would not seek re-election. Truman
threw his support behind Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson,
who repeatedly declined to run but was eventually drafted
as the Democratic nominee on the strength of his eloquent
keynote speech at the convention.
-
Stevenson proved to be no match for the Republican
nominee, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played a key
role in planning the Allied victory in World War II. A poll in
March 1952 found Eisenhower the most admired living
American, and in November he won a landslide victory on
the basis of his pledge to clean up "the mess in Washington"
and end the Korean War.
-
Eisenhower spots were placed before or after popular TV
shows such as I Love Lucy which would reach more viewers
and at a lower cost than 30 minute speeches.
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1956
You will see young men watching the games and enjoying
themselves
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Four years ago it was a different story, they were involved in
war
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One day a year they will remember the war - on election day
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They will be voting the road to peace for the next four years
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Asked people what they were looking for in a candidate and
that they would vote for Eisenhower
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For President Eisenhower, the only true emergency of his
first term was the heart attack he suffered in September
1955. After his doctor pronounced him fully recovered in
February 1956, Eisenhower announced his decision to run
for re-election. The Democrats set up a replay of the 1952
contest by nominating Adlai Stevenson. The result was an
even greater Republican landslide. Eisenhower was a
popular incumbent president who had ended the Korean
War. Two world crises helped cement his lead in the final
days of the campaign: the Soviet Union invaded Hungary,
and Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in an effort to
take over the Suez Canal. Eisenhower kept the United States
out of both conflicts. As is traditional during a military crisis,
American voters rallied behind their president. The events
also undermined two of Stevenson’s key positions: the
suspension of hydrogen-bomb testing and the elimination of
the military draft.
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He was portrayed as an ordinary American
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Only way to win WWIII is to prevent it
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"Peace, Prosperity, and Progress"
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1960
In 1960, America was enjoying a period of relative
prosperity. With the exception of the stirrings of the modern
civil rights movement, domestic turbulence was low, and the
primary foreign threat seemed to be the intensifying Cold
War. Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, and
installed a Communist regime just ninety miles off the coast
of Florida. In May 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot
down inside the Soviet Union, further intensifying tensions
between the superpowers. The Republican nominee, Vice
President Richard Nixon, was enjoying a growing reputation
for his foreign policy skills after his televised "kitchen
debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959. The
Democratic nominee, charismatic Massachusetts Senator
John F. Kennedy, was attempting to become the first
Catholic president and, at age 43, the youngest man ever
elected to the office. Nixon argued that he had the maturity
and experience to deal with the Communists, while Kennedy
attempted to turn his youth into an advantage, proclaiming
in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, "We
stand today on the edge of a new frontier."
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Offering new American leadership
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Economic growth means strength and vitality, which would
make America a greater world power
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Not meeting their obligations to Americans, people are
starving
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Competing with the USSR to be better
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Advocating for Civil Rights
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1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took office following John
F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, enhanced his
image as a tough legislator by winning a hard-fought battle
to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
guaranteed African-Americans access to all public facilities,
and banned discrimination by race, religion, or sex. The
Vietnam War was escalating, but had yet to become a real
liability for Johnson.
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The margin of Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964 was partly
a repudiation of Barry Goldwater’s extreme right-wing
views. Goldwater, an Arizona senator and author of the
best-selling book The Conscience of a Conservative, won the
Republican nomination after a bitter primary campaign
against moderate New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In
his acceptance speech, Goldwater made the infamous
statement, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The
assertion, meant as a defense of conservatism, merged in
the public consciousness with statements in which
Goldwater advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in
Vietnam and argued that Social Security be made voluntary.
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LBJ capitalized on preserving JFK's legacy
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1968
By 1968, one of the most turbulent years in American
history, the number of American troops in Vietnam had
risen from 16,000 (in 1963) to more than 500,000. Nightly
TV coverage of the "living-room war" ignited an antiwar
movement. After a weak showing in the New Hampshire
primary, President Johnson shocked the country on March
31 by announcing that he would not seek reelection. Just
four days later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated,
sparking riots in more than 100 cities. In June, Robert F.
Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California
primary. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who entered the
race late and had not won any primaries, became the
Democratic nominee at a tumultuous convention in Chicago
marred by disorder inside the convention hall and by the
televised spectacle of violent confrontations between police
and antiwar protesters.
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The Republicans nominated Richard M. Nixon, who was
attempting a political comeback after losing the 1960
presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial
race. Nixon claimed to speak for the "silent majority" of law-
abiding citizens whose voices were presumably drowned out
amidst the social upheaval, and he promised a return to the
stability of the Eisenhower years.
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Discontent with major-party candidates led to an
independent run by Alabama Governor George Wallace,
who waged the most successful third-party candidacy since
1924.
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Platform of being free from domestic violence
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"Vote like your world depended on it" - Nixon
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1972
In 1971, President Nixon’s approval rating fell below 50
percent. Despite his 1968 promises to end the Vietnam War,
the conflict was dragging on. At home, inflation and
unemployment were rising. Nixon restored his popularity
through several actions: he took unprecedented diplomatic
trips to China and Russia; stepped up efforts to end the war
by ordering the bombing of Hanoi; instituted wage and price
controls; and ended the draft, partly because of the recent
lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18. Nixon’s opponent,
South Dakota Senator George McGovern, who won his
party’s nomination with a grassroots campaign sparked by
the antiwar movement, called for withdrawal from Vietnam
and a significant reduction in military spending. McGovern
named as his running mate Missouri Senator Thomas
Eagleton, who, shortly after the convention, revealed that
he had been hospitalized for depression and had received
shock therapy. McGovern dropped him from the ticket and
replaced him with former ambassador R. Sargent Shriver.
The incident created an impression of ineptitude. McGovern
was also unable to convince the public of any connection
between the Nixon administration and the June break-in at
the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
Watergate apartment complex.
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The attack ad “McGovern Defense,” was released by the
Nixon campaign under the banner of the quasi-independent
group “Democrats for Nixon.” All of Nixon’s advertising was
overseen by his aide H.R. Haldeman, a former advertising
executive with J. Walter Thompson. This ad is one of the
most effective incarnations of a favorite Republican theme;
that the Republicans represent military strength and that
Democrats cannot be trusted as commander in chief, partly
because they would cut defense spending. By using plastic
toys when describing McGovern’s plans and then cutting to
real footage of President Nixon on a battleship, the ad
implies that only Nixon can be taken seriously as
commander in chief. The other key concept expressed by
the ad is the notion that the Democratic candidate is
dangerously liberal. The ad effectively uses the words of
McGovern’s Democratic rival Hubert Humphrey to suggest
that McGovern is so far out of the mainstream that even
voters from his own party are supporting Nixon. This ad
strategy was a response to a demographic shift in the
electorate, with working-class voters moving towards the
Republican Party. The effectiveness of the ad is proven by
the fact that it was virtually remade in two subsequent
campaigns, as “Tank Ride” for George H.W. Bush in 1988,
and “Weapons Florida” for George W. Bush in 2004.
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1976
On August 9, 1974, after a Senate investigation revealed his
direct involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate break-
in, Richard Nixon became the first president in American
history to resign from office. Nixon was succeeded by Gerald
Ford, who had been appointed vice president after a bribery
scandal forced Spiro Agnew’s resignation in October 1973.
These scandals and the televised Watergate hearings, which
resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of 25 Nixon
administration officials, shattered the public's trust in the
government. In a 1974 poll, 43 percent of respondents said
that they had "hardly any" faith in the executive branch. As
a result, the 1976 election was dominated by issues of
integrity and character. Hoping to put the Watergate affair
to rest, President Ford unconditionally pardoned Nixon in
September 1974, but the move hurt Ford’s political
standing. Ford won the Republican nomination only after
fighting off a strong challenge from Ronald Reagan.
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The Democrats nominated Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter,
a former naval officer and peanut farmer. Carter, who
promised, "I will never tell a lie to the American people," ran
a brilliant campaign as an outsider, offering a fresh change
from Washington politics as usual.
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1980
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed
the American embassy in Tehran. Protesting the entry of the
deposed Shah into the United States, they held 53
Americans hostage. For the next twelve months, the hostage
situation was an ongoing American nightmare magnified by
constant media attention. Confidence in President Carter
eroded as a result of the Iran crisis, an oil shortage and
resultant increase in gas prices, and 18 percent inflation.
Carter’s chances were further damaged by a tough primary
battle against Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.
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While Carter had been the fresh face of 1976, this year the
role of Washington outsider was played by the Republican
nominee, Ronald Reagan. A former Hollywood actor who
became governor of California in 1966, Reagan made a brief
run for the presidency in 1968, and nearly beat Gerald Ford
for the Republican nomination in 1976. Reagan’s landslide
victory was due not only to Carter’s problems, but also to a
demographic shift toward an aging population that was
growing more conservative. Carter became the first
Democratic incumbent to lose the presidency since Grover
Cleveland in 1888. In a further indignity, the Iranians waited
until the moment of Reagan’s inauguration to release the
hostages.
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1984
In 1984, the economy was in an upswing. Oil prices were
low, interest rates were high, and the lurking problem of the
mounting federal deficit caused little public concern. The
popular President Reagan was earning the label "the Teflon
president" for his ability to escape unscathed from setbacks.
In October 1983, 241 marines were killed in a terrorist
attack in Beirut. The debacle was eclipsed days later by a
marine invasion of Grenada, purportedly to save a small
group of medical students from the island’s new leftist
government. Public confidence in the military was restored.
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The unenviable task of running against Reagan fell to former
Vice President Walter Mondale. Mondale made two bold
choices in his campaign, both of which backfired. First, he
selected a woman, New York Representative Geraldine
Ferraro, as his running mate. Media scrutiny of her
husband’s finances put Ferraro on the defensive. Second,
Mondale announced in his acceptance speech that he would
raise taxes to fight the deficit. He missed the opportunity to
point out that a day earlier Reagan had quietly signed a bill
raising taxes by $50 billion. Reagan succeeded in tagging
Mondale as a typical free-spending Democrat, and won the
most lopsided electoral victory since 1936.
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1988
Ronald Reagan—the first president since Eisenhower to
serve two full terms—had presided over a renewed national
optimism, but there were dark clouds on the horizon as his
presidency drew to a close. The federal deficit was soaring
out of control. The revelation that profits from American
sales of weapons to Iran were illegally routed to the
Nicaraguan contras spawned a major scandal. Wall Street
was in turmoil following several insider-trading scandals and
the October 1987 stock market collapse. The stage was set
for one of the most bitter presidential campaigns in recent
history: Vice President George Bush, who portrayed himself
as the rightful heir to the Reagan revolution, versus
Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who offered a
traditionally Democratic vision of increased government
spending on health care, child care, education, and housing.
The Bush campaign used brutal television advertising to
portray Dukakis as an ineffective liberal who would gut the
country’s defense system and let convicted murderers out
of prison. Hoping voters would dismiss the attacks as unfair,
Dukakis refused to counterattack until late in the campaign.
By then it was too late.
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1992
George Bush, the incumbent president, enjoyed approval
ratings near 90 percent following America’s decisive military
victory in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Many leading
Democrats, including New York Governor Mario Cuomo,
declined to run, and the party’s nomination went to Bill
Clinton, governor of Arkansas. By early 1992, the U.S.
economy was faltering, and Clinton’s campaign decided to
focus almost exclusively on this issue. A prominently placed
sign in Clinton’s campaign headquarters read "It’s the
economy, stupid!" Ironically, because of the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1989, which the Republicans took credit for, the
Cold War was not an important issue during the campaign,
and the Democrats were able to keep the emphasis on
domestic concerns. The importance of the economy as an
issue was amplified by the surprisingly successful third-party
candidacy of billionaire Ross Perot, whose campaign
concentrated on deficit reduction.
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Commercials: Living Room Candidate 1952 - 1992
Monday, March 26, 2018 2:08 PM
Document Summary
Now is the time for all good americans to aid their country, vote for eisenhower. President harry s. truman entered 1952 with his popularity plummeting. The korean war was dragging into its third year, senator joseph mccarthy"s anti-communist crusade was stirring public fears of an encroaching "red menace," and the disclosure of widespread corruption among federal employees rocked the administration. Hampshire primary to tennessee senator estes kefauver, who had chaired a nationally televised investigation of organized crime in 1951, president truman announced on. March 29, 1952, that he would not seek re-election. Truman threw his support behind illinois governor adlai stevenson, who repeatedly declined to run but was eventually drafted as the democratic nominee on the strength of his eloquent keynote speech at the convention. Stevenson proved to be no match for the republican nominee, war hero dwight d. eisenhower, who played a key role in planning the allied victory in world war ii.
