With upcoming elections, TV and social media are flooded with campaign advertisements. Big promises and catchy jingles are trying to get people to vote for candidates and policies. There have been countless memorable ads; some have shaped election results, while others have set the framework for how advertising would look going forward.
American citizens viewed the first-ever political TV advertisement, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “I Like Ike” ads, during the 1952 presidential campaign. The simple jingle and phrase caught the attention of voters and stayed in their minds. Eisenhower dominated the 1952 election, capturing 442 electoral votes as compared to Adlai Stevenson II’s 89.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the next person to leverage a TV ad for his campaign. After becoming the vice president after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he ran against Barry Goldwater. Goldwater made pro-nuclear weapon use statements during a debate in Seattle.
Johnson then leveraged these statements and the nervous feeling around nuclear weapons to his advantage. He put out what is now referred to as the “Daisy” ad. It features a girl picking daisies and counting the petals until an announcement for a countdown comes in. When the countdown reaches its end, a nuclear mushroom cloud is shown.
The ad was presented as a claim that if Goldwater were elected, this would be the future for American children. This fear and concern, intensified by the ad, proved to have a large impact on Johnson’s campaign. Similar to Eisenhower in 1952, Johnson won in the Electoral College, getting 486 votes to Goldwater’s 52.
It was not until 1984 that another political ad left an impact. Ronald Regan’s major success in his first term was due to helping the U.S. bounce back from its recession in the early 1980s. Regan saw great success during his campaign for his second term.
He showcased this success in his ads, most notably in the “Morning in America” ad, showing people living successfully in Regan’s America and offering up testimonies of Regan’s success.
The ad included claims, such as, “Today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country’s history” and “This afternoon 6,500 young men and women will be married.”
This ad showed the impact Reagan had during his first term, and he coasted into reelection, capturing 525 Electoral College votes to Walter Mondale’s 13. He also carried all states but Minnesota.
The 1988 Presidential Election marked the shift to negative political advertising. Republican nominee George H.W. Bush used Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis’ support of the Massachusetts furlough law against him, highlighting Willie Horton, an inmate who committed assault, armed robbery and rape while furloughed.
The advertising hurt Dukakis’ image, and Bush won in a landslide: 426-111 electoral votes.
In 2008, Barack Obama returned to hopeful messaging with political ads that adopted Eisenhower’s idea of a memorable slogan in his “Yes We Can” video. The iconic slogan came from one of Obama’s speeches during the New Hampshire primary, and was later turned into a video by artist will.i.am. Obama beat John McCain with 365-173 electoral votes.
Political ads, used to criticize opponents and sway voters, have been pivotal since the ‘50s and have since expanded into the social media sphere. The ads play a pivotal role in campaigns.
