Advertising in the 1950s, highlighting Dwight Eisenhowers political campaign. She examines what components made them successful. Her class is about an hour and 10 minutes. Nothing perhaps captures the popular memory of the 1950s like the slogan, i like ike. This idea, this pin that so many people wore around the campaign of 1952 and 1956, conveys a notion of nostalgia and simplicity. It really emphasizes this idea of the 1950s as this era of prosperity. And the American People were happy in suburban homes with their nuclear families. I like ike. Its so simple and it conveys that happiness. This idea, however, is a myth. And it is a political construction. The 1950s, in fact, it was a time wrought with racial discrimination, conflict, intense political and social pressures to conform to a suburban ideal that imposed gender hierarchies and mandated heterosexuality in the law. It was a time in which anti communism targeted the liberal reform impulses of the new deal and often anticommunists took away civil liberties. These are all areas of political pressure in terms of enforcing certain ideals and resisting against those that we will look at next week. I like ike, as a political construct, shifted attention away from those divisions and it created a sense of consensus. In many ways, again, this is a political construction. At the root of it was an innovative and transformative Marketing Campaign that transformed a military hero into a political celebrity. And he used that attention to win the presidency. Often we think of john f. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan as ushering in the television presidency, but, in fact, it was Dwight Eisenhower. I cant nest the power of television to win the presidency and to put forward his vision of america and the world and this is what we are going to look at today. Dwight eisenhower brought several important developments to the modern american presidency, through his leadership style and organizational approach. Doing this, he built on a lot of the transformations we already looked at this semester. For example, Franklin Roosevelt launched the executive office of the presidency and last week we looked at how harry truman extended it. With the National Security state. Dwight eisenhower formalized it. He ran his office very much like he did the military. The bureaucracy became very entrenched and well executed in the american presidency under eisenhower. For example, he had weekly Cabinet Meetings and form the office of Congressional Liaison so that he could have a formal link to the legislative process. This was especially important because throughout the 1950s, the Democratic Party controlled congress. So eisenhower recognized that to get things done, he needed to have a smooth operation in terms of links with congress. But he also brought this organizational focus to the shifting media environment and transforms the white house into a production studio. To do that, he worked very closely with hollywood figures and madison avenue Television Executives and advertising companies, to navigate the new, mass medium of television. It ultimately really transformed american political communication during the 1950s. So, the postworld war ii era is a key moment to understand the rise of entertainment, advertising, television and hollywood in american politics, because television really does drastically change the political theme during the 1950s. So the question that i want us to think about today as we study this particular period is, how does television change leadership styles . How does it change strategies of political communication and what is needed to succeed politically . And the key question we will come back to at the end of class is, does television revolutionize the american presidency or does it build on trends that are already in place . So, to get at that question we need to start by thinking about what are the trends that are already in place . Does television launch a significant break in terms of Leadership Strategy and communication strategy . So, what trends were already in place before the launch of television in the 1950s . What does Theodore Roosevelt bring to the presidency . Theodore roosevelt increased Media Connections at the beginning of the 20th century to start formalizing the process of the executive office in the media. Excellent. Didnt he also set up the west wing as a source to have the press within the white house yes. In order to have a connection with them, as well. Yes. He saw the press as an asset, something he wanted to capitalize on to control and help shape Public Opinion. Excellent. Caroline . He also had the fireside chats, so there was already this idea that there was this personalized president. If every person has a radio in their home he can listen to them and he is using rhetoric that is easy to understand and not super complicated political jargon. Yes. So Franklin Roosevelt really brings in this idea of the fireside chats. Theodore roosevelt uses the bully pulpit. He creates these relationships with journalists and uses Public Opinion to launch and advocate for very specific policies. Franklin roosevelt takes this a step further. He capitalizes on radio and uses that to create an intimate connection with the american public. And i am going to play you a quick clip, just to give you a sense of what this sounded like. Again, thinking about if you were a listener. You were tuning into your radio during the 1930s to listen to your president. This would have been what you heard. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. My friends, i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking. To start with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and withdrawing of checks. What did he do, just in that very simple opening . He definitely personalizes the chat. He uses i, you, we, and he creates this personal link between the presidency and the people, so that they feel like he is on their side and they also have a place in this huge, bureaucratic thing that he has begun to create. Absolutely. Personalizing the presidency. That is so key. For those of you who looked at a lot of critics of new deal programs, how does he bypass them with the radio . If someone doesnt agree with a particular program, what is he able to do with radio . He is able to directly appeal to the American People with the radio and bypass, say, newspapers with an editorial slant against new deal policies and just to work around old institutions that were against him. Absolutely. That is really key, thinking about the power that this gives. It creates that personal relationship, the intimacy between the president and an individual, in their home. And then it also allows him to challenge the narrative. Overwhelmingly at this time people got their information from newspapers and many newspaper editors were against the new deal, overwhelmingly. Newspapers were more conservative, more critical of a lot of roosevelt policies. So the radio becomes a new opportunity to connect directly to audiences. And if you recall, it is not just radio that he uses. He also used theaters and Motion Pictures to sell certain programs. He capitalized on the newsreels that wouldve been shown at the beginning of a Motion Picture feature, but he also worked with a variety of different studios in hollywood to create production shorts like this one, which promoted the National Recovery administration. [ applause ] you and you and you, youve got a president now he gave the land a new deal. You hold the new deal. You, and you, and you, shoulders to the plow. He gave us what we asked for, now pay him back somehow. Step out front, and give a man a job. And give a man a job. In the old name of roosevelt, make the old heart sound. You take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. You look like a banker who drives a car . I drive it myself sir, have a cigar. Take your cigar and hire a chauffeur and keep a man from becoming a loafer. You look like a grocer . No sir, my job is extermination. You must give your assistance each a nice weekend vacation. We want you to hire a crowd. You will hang up this sign, it means no rats allowed. And how about you . I am a very sick woman. Oh. Hypochondriac. You must get something to soothe you. Two for halitosis. One for eczema, bronchitis, or any other kind of an itis, that will delight us. That way madam, you will help to end unemployment. Now, listen to me, everybody. Step out, get back, and give a man a job. You know that. I know it. Now, step up and give a man a job. You know who is president of the nra . No . Ill tell you. You take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. [ applause ] so what does this do that is different from the fireside chats . Go ahead, brent. It turns president ial policy into an entertainment product. It is very much like the beginning of the whole concept of marketing. Absolutely. Excellent. Excellent. Kayla . I was going to say it is no longer the president advocating for himself, but it is normal people advocating for the president. That normal people would want the president and are very much for his policies. And that he has caused the economic boom and prosperity in the country. So the focus, the hero of this story, is Franklin Roosevelt. He is featured at the end, his portrait, but he has a variety of other people helping sell this. A comedienne in this capacity. A variety of celebrities come out for Franklin Roosevelt to do this. Radio spokesman and personalities are all selling the president for him. Again, a different kind of Production Team in terms of selling a particular policy. Excellent. Adam . It kind of creates the soundbite. You can take different snippets of what the guy is saying. Give back to the president or give a man a job. Those are easy to remember jingles, so you could put those in radio advertisements that appeal to a general audience. They will remember that message, whether or not they have heard the whole song or whether or not they have heard about the different ways they can help. They will remember, give a man a job. Absolutely, the slogan. So bringing some of these features, advertising at the time and hollywood, bringing them into hollywood. And the only reason you will not be humming give a man a job later this day is because you will hum i like ike. It is a lot catchier. They also use it as a selling point. Usually when we think of selling a candidate, we think of getting votes. But this time it was getting the people involved in a specific policy, so it is helping the common man or the middleclass man to come out and without you, we cant do this, but with you you can be part of this grander thing helping all americans. And that is really key, as well, when we think about media and new media and the president. Because effective president s are able to use new media to win elections, but also to govern. To use it as a tool to sell their agenda, as well. Making that transition from communication on the campaign trail to communication once in office is really key. This is why what Dwight Eisenhower does with television is also really important, because he follows that trajectory in terms of using new media to win an election and then reshape how he governs and sets the agenda, as lucas pointed out. Again, there are a lot of new possibilities, in terms of presenting an agenda, shaping Public Opinion and promoting a personality that comes with radio and Motion Pictures. So, what about television . Does television bring something fundamentally new to american politics sent the american presidency . I want to throw a couple numbers out, because i think it conveys how dramatically television grew and reshaped american politics. In 1949, only 172,000 Television Sets that sold. That jump to 53 million by 1952. This was a dramatic growth of a new technology that forced politicians to grapple with presenting themselves and their policies to voters through tv screens, rather than newspaper articles, Radio Broadcasts or even these moche Motion Picture shorts. One of the key things to think about is this growth of new technology caused tremendous anxiety and concern and it is really important to understand that this is postworld war ii that it becomes so powerful. There was deep concern over the manipulative power of propaganda at this time and the ways it could be used to undermine democracy and promote totalitarian governments. After all, adolf hitler and the nazi party in germany had an effective propaganda machine. They were able to consolidate power by limiting new information over new media. So did Joseph Stalin and the soviet union. These concerns about the manipulative power of new media and even old media, Motion Pictures in particular, were really at the core of a lot of anticommunist investigations. Particularly the ones that featured the Motion Picture industry in 1947. The central question that was debated in the halls of congress as a variety of actors and studio executives came to washington dc to testify about their political activity, was, were they using entertainment, where they using their celebrity, for undemocratic purposes . One anticommunist film critic told the House Committee of un american activities that clamor is appealing. The communists have made shrewd and excellent use of it for their purposes. They are trying to bedazzle audiences with celebrities. This is a question that pervaded national politics. Is Entertainment Media . Motion pictures and this new media, television, that people werent sure what to do with, is this going to undermine democracy . Does it focus more attention on entertainment . Can it be used as a way to advance communism . These were central questions that people had periods of these fears of entertainment and propaganda and manipulation are really important to understand, when we see the different ways that politicians grappled with television. Some of them embraced television and the opportunities that it is going to offer. Overwhelmingly in the 1950s they were very wary of it. The argument that we dont want to manipulate others by embracing advertising, advertising in madison avenue, that really dominated Public Discourse in the 1950s. For example, the democratic nominee for the presidency in 1952 and 1956, adelaide stevenson, looked disdainfully on the medium that sold president s as commodities. He wrote, i think it is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. He wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand his message, to deliver longer speeches. To emphasize his oratory, but not to use those quick sales techniques that madison avenue executives were using to sell cereal. He wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand the message that he was already delivering to audiences. So what he did in the 1952 election is that he did allow some advertisers to create some catchy jingles for him, but he refused to be a part of that production. He said if you want to do that the way we did with the radio, thats fine, but im not going to appear in the short advertisements. There is no way i can talk about a policy in 30 seconds. So instead, Adlai Stevenson worked with the Democratic National committee and purchased longer chunks of time. So, an hour where he would then go in front of a tv camera and deliver a long speech about a particular policy. Well, if you are going to purchase an hour of tv time and you have a limited budget, when will that time be . Any thoughts . When can you afford that time . Guys . Whenever it is cheapest. Absolutely. It would probably be late at night, not prime time. Absolutely. So when Adlai Stevenson did appear on tv, it was late at night. When the only people watching were perhaps those people who were committed democrats and wanted to watch what Adlai Stevenson had to say. So that is the only time he really appeared on television and he had his Advertising Team make adds, that again, reflected radio strategy. I want to show you two of them and i want you to think of how these are perhaps more reminiscent of something you would hear over the radio, then something you would see on tv. Old mcdonald had a farm, back in 31. Petitions filled him with alarm, back in 31. And farmer mac the day in 1931, when he didnt have bread when the day was done. Farmer mac knows what to do, election day of 1952. Vote along with everyone in the usa. Then to look for Adlai Stevenson to get us on our way. If it is good for mac, you see, it is good for you and me. Allamerican loves that farm. Vote stevenson today. All right, and one more. Ike. Bob. Ike. Bob. Im so glad we are friends again, bob. Yes ike, we agree on everything. Lets never separate again, bob. Never again, ike. Bob. Ike. Will bike ike and bob really live happily ever after . Is the white house big enough for both of them . Stay tuned. Reuben, reuben, ive been thinking, bob and i can now think alike. With the general in the white house, who is giving the orders, bob or ike . Bob refers to the other contender for the presidency in the Republican Party. He was the more conservative candidate and eisenhower was promoted at this time is the m