Ads Not What You Can Do To Your Country…
On the brink of what amounts to a national primary day—the candidates are spending millions upon millions of dollars on campaign ads that’ll run on TV…
How effective will their advertising be?
And—can TV compete with the Internet as a medium of influence?
Back in 1964— the most famous—and most controversial TV ad ever produced was run by the Johnson campaign against Barry Goldwater.
Playing on the fears that Goldwater was a war-monger who would use nuclear weapons—this ad known as “The Daisy” was run just ONCE on NBC’s Monday Night Movie. But it was so effective—it is credited with helping Goldwater lose the election because he couldn’t fight the image it created…
There were a couple of factors at play back then. First, there were ONLY 3 networks— and both NBC and CBS had the lions share of the viewers. ABC didn’t really count. So the Johnson campaign had close to a captive audience.
Plus, America was in the midst of the cold war—and fear of a nuclear strike by the Soviets was a real and everyday fear.
Twenty years later, in 1984—Walter Mondale tried a similar tact in ads against Ronald Reagan using a re-working of the Crosby, Stills & Nash song, “Teach Your Children Well.”
The ad ran scores of times—but it didn’t help. Reagan won 49 of the 50 states—and ended up with 58% of the popular vote..
What had changed?
Well, the times were different—and the impact of TV advertising wasn’t as effective as it had been 20 years earlier…
These days—TV ads continue—but it’s now the internet that holds more of the power…
Before the campaign for the presidency began in earnest his year, a mash-up of the famous 1984 Apple computer ad touting Barack Obama spread like wildfire across the web—creating tons of buzz…
This was heralded as a watershed moment—pundits saying this demonstrated how political campaigns will be transformed..
And…the Internet does offer several advantages over TV.
Now that John McCain’s got a lot of traction in the polls, we’ve seen a new attack ad fly around the internet.
Will this be the “daisy” ad of the 21st Century?
Check with us again—after super Tuesday
—Steve
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