Transcripts For CSPAN3 Presidential Campaign Commercials 20240712

The first president ial campaign as a during the 1952 contests to between 20 eisenhower and adelaide season. President campaigned has been important ever since. Heres a look. You like now is the time for all good americans like bob. Like, bob. Im so glad were friends again bob. Yes ike, we agree on everything. Lets never separate gate separate gate again bob. Never again ike. Ike, bob. Like, bob. Well i can bob really live happily ever after . Is the white house making up for both of them . Stay tuned for a musical interlude. So joint production of American History on cspan 3 and cspans washington journal. Will be joined by Professor Robert mcmahon, and louis is in a State University daisy petals and mushroom clouds. Take a look these 90 minutes at the history of tv political advertising. Professor mitt thanks for joining us here. Thank you good for being with. You weaves start with 1950. Too so that was the first year that tv was used it is a medium for television ads. Television had been used a little bit during 1948 for the 1948 to them democratic harry truman made a link up but really 1952 is the first time you saw candidates advertising in a way that was not just a speech. Even though we are going to see a lot of spots this morning, 60 and 32nd spots, it is important to remember that 1952, 1956 and 1960, the candidates saw television as a way to give speeches. So in 1952, even though Adlai Stevenson, the democratic nominee, and Dwight Eisenhower, the republican nominee were airing some spot of advertising, the vast majority of the people seeing them, suddenly for stevenson, were seeing him give 30minute speeches. Stevenson gave 1830 minute speech is a tentative last night on tuesdays and thursdays in the latter part of the campaign. Both candidates were very reluctant to do this kind of spot advertising. They saw politics as being more dignified, they saw spots as the way to sell soup, soap them and serial, not lofty political ideas. We will see a lot of ads in the next hour and a half here with Professor Bob mann from lsu. We welcome your calls, your comments and your questions on ads that are politically notable for you. We have opened up the lines. For republicans, it is 2027488001, democrats, 2027488000, and independents, 2027488002. It is fair to say that eisenhower and stevenson had to be pushed to do advertising, correct . Yes. There was an advertising executive who was fairly prominent, Fairly Famous for his innovations at the time. Russell reeves. He worked at the todd bates agency. He was hired by the eisenhower campaign to manage their advertisers. At the time eisenhower and his people thought it would just be speeches. Reeves looks at one of the speeches, i think it was his announcement speech early in the campaign, and made two major conclusions. That eisenhower was a terrible speaker and that these 30 minute speeches were too complex. Too long that people left the speech is i not having a single idea of what he was about. It was a jumble of issues. So he persuaded eisenhower to do this spot advertising. The major way that people were seeing eisenhower spots was not this animated spot, the jingle you just saw, which was interesting and a lot of people enjoy watching it because it recognizes the First Political spot. But most eisenhower spots were these 22nd eisenhower answers spots where he would just look at the camera and answer questions from average people off the street. Eisenhower thought it was humiliating. Stevenson thought his spots were a humiliating exercise that degraded the candidacy and the office of the president. They were both sort of dragged into doing us. Two questions about the ads we just saw for eisenhower and stevenson. One, the donkeys in the animated ad for thencandidate eisenhower, kind of a negative ad in that regard. Two, who is bob in the Adlai Stevenson add . So the donkeys you see riding the elevator backwards, which as you point out is that of a subtle negative ad, that is the democratic senator from alabama who was Adlai Stevensons running mate, the dean had jason who was the secretary of state under truman, who was much reviled by conservatives and republicans dean addison, and stevenson, the nominee. In the other ad, bob was bob taft, leader of the conservative republicans and senator from ohio, son of president taft. Before eisenhower ran against, he was his main opponent for the nomination in 1952. To win tafts support, he went to taft and promise that he would support him in his conservative agenda and even promised he would give taft some patronage. Democrats called about the great surrender. That eisenhower had surrendered to taft and taft was controlling the nominee. So the point of that spot is that they have fallen in love and taft has captured eisenhower and he will be the power behind the throne if eisenhower is elected president. The title of your book is daisy petals and mushroom clouds. Based on the daisy ads. Lets go to the 1964 ad by the Lyndon Johnson campaign and followed by the ads from the Goldwater Campaign. 2, 1, 0. By eight seven six five four three to one. [explosion] these are the stakes to make a world in which all of gods children can live. Our to go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must. I vote for president johnson on november 3rd. The stakes are too high fee to stay home. Graft. Swindles. Juvenile delinquency. Crime . Riots here what Barry Goldwater has to say about our lack of moral leadership. The leadership of this nation as a clear and immediate challenge to go to work effectively and you go to work immediately to restore proper respect for law and order in this land and not just prior to election day either. Americas greatness, the greatness of our people, cannot this generation then make a new mark for that greatness. Let this generation of americans set a standard of responsibility that will inspire the world. In your heart, you know hes. Right vote for Barry Goldwater. , theres a lot there bob man start with the daisy ad antenna less the tenor of the times. 1964, why that ad came about and tell us the tenor of the times, 1964, and why the add came about. Thank you for asking me to set the stage because i think its important to understand the atmosphere in the country in that time, we were still in the shadow of the cuban missile crisis. We were still armed to the teeth, facing the soviet union which was also armed to the teeth with their weapons. People at the time were really fearful that the soviet union in the United States, even though the cuban missile crisis had been resolved, that we would still end up going to war and it would not be a conventional land war, it would he a nuclear war that would destroy much of the world. And so in that environment comes along gold water, a very prominent leader of the conservative wing of the Republican Party since the 1950s, republican senator from arizona, who is using a lot of the other close bo echoes language. When kennedy announces the moon shot cool water announces calls Nuclear Bombs just another weapon. He suggests that we should defol iate the chi minh trail in vietnam using nuclear weapons. He made a lot of comments like that a lot of the years that suggested he was reckless and was not serious about the responsibility of being president would it came to using nuclear weapons. So people already knew goldwaters position on that very well. That is why he takes advantage. It is clever because it doesnt mention goldwater. It didnt need to. People who created that spot realized all they had to do was give a story and let the viewers do the work. Let the viewers fell in the blanks with the information and the knowledge and the emotion that they brought to the spot. That is what makes it so groundbreaking and so clever and i think so effective. They put the viewers to work. It didnt give them a lot of information. It assumed they had a lot of information and used that information in a clever way. Does it correct that they see at only red once on television . Is only run once on the night of september 7, 1964. In those days there were three networks, so probably about 4050,000,000 people saw that ad the one time it aired. It wasnt unusual to run the spot a couple of times and move on to something else. The spot did air on several network news broadcasts it into in its entirety later in the week. Because i started making news and the goal water in the Republican Party officials started to object to it, so it made news, which ensured it got a free ride in the networks for the next week. I am guessing between 70 and 100 Million People saw it by the end of the week. I thought it was pretty interesting that Richard Nixon with a lot Order Campaign with Barry Goldman of thats his message. Yes. That spot you saw there is a distillation of 30 minutes of a documentary that the Goldwater Campaign had created called choice. They planned to air it is a paid Political Program on National Television. Goldwater saw it and said it was a racist spots. He stopped it from being run and the Goldwater Campaign or national to television. It did get one on local Television Commercials and at house parties. But they did take the essence of it and distillate down into this 32nd spot which was trying to take advantage of the anxiety in the public about civil unrest. Lyndon johnson had become president on the death of john f. Kennedy and was seen by a lot of republicans as having added to the and caused a little moral degradation of the country and the civil rights movement, there werent a lot of protests over the vietnam war at the time. But all this unrest and unsettled environment was growing and conservatives were nervous and scared about it. Goldwaters campaign was trying to take advantage of that fear and growing unease with a certain percentage of the population. We are looking at the history of president ial campaign tv advertising here on American History tv on cspan three, in a joint production with cspans washington journal. We will get to your phone calls momentarily. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. Independents 2027488002. Robert man a comment on twitter, of your said the American Culture was more conservative th. His observation. From 1952 through 19 64, infancy is the right word to use. The people who were doing this stuff for politicians were really experimenting. They didnt know what they were doing they were experimenting. They didnt know what they were doing. Today you can hire a company that specializes in producing political spots they, rely on Public Opinion research and focus groups. They didnt know anything about that. These are mostly technicians producing these spots. They were people who arranged the presentation of a 30minute speech or a 45minute installation of a speech on the air. It was not until the madison avenue firm the copy account to do Lyndon Johnsons campaign not true Creative Advertising principles were brought to president ial campaigns. The reason i wrote my book about this is that this is the hinge moment in american political advertising when everybody saw, oh, this is how it is done, this is how you advertise political ideas, this is how you create spots that are interesting, that are clever and that put the viewers information to work, that involve the viewer, not just passive experience. If you look at the spots before 1964 and 1968 and forward, you can see that there is a moment in time where everything changes. Lets hear from our caller. As we go to brett in jacksonville, florida. Good morning youre on with professor. Man good morning. How are you doing . Good, thank you. I just have a question about the modern day president ial commercials. It just seems to me biden, you said he ran for president because of the fine people comments by president trump. And he seems to cut off right after that line spoken that he condemned White Supremacists and neo nazis. That is always left out. You know what im saying . Ok, brent. Before us are met what are some of your observations of modern day 2020 versus what were seeing earlier in 52 and 64 . It is a torrent of ads today and targeted in a way they werent in those days. 1964, the daisy ad, the goldwater ad we saw was meant to be in mostly on a National Television or in giving them, there were certainly swing states more often than we have today but they were just broadcast, meant for most everyone to see them. They were not targeted. Today you see a much more finely sliced and diced electorate based on the profiling and political polling that these candidates and their campaigns do. So when you see an ad especially online, just scrolling through the internet on the website, that is usually an ad that was intended exactly for you or a person just like you. Did was not meant for your neighbor. It may not even have been meant for your spouse or children. It may have been meant for you especially either because of your shopping behavior. You are buying behavior. Your registration or where you live. The ads are much more finally targeted to people. It doesnt mean they always hit the mark, but other than the stylistic differences, that is the main difference in advertising today as opposed to 1964 and before the invention of internet. Pennsylvania, good morning. Just curious from doing the research. I remember looking at history in 1961, president kennedy did a speech at the waldorfastoria called the presidency and the press. During the same era, you had a edward r morrow folks talking about the media and its value to society. Both those folks talked about how the media was not used properly to educate the American People about the issues of the day. So i am just curious about the speakers thoughts. He has done a lot of research on these ads. Were those men right, when they say that we were not using television to educate that just to amuse and entertain . Even in the realm of political ads, it seems that is where we have gotten to as opposed to providing useful or helpful education. To the American People. I am curious what the guest thinks. That is a really good question. I would say they were not so much right that they were prescient. In the early to mid 1960s, there was an advantage and a disadvantage. You may not have had a lot of access to different sources of news on the three major networks, maybe you had a couple of local newspapers and some radio news, but there was a generally agreed upon there were generally agreedupon facts. If something happened, every american should of had the basic understanding of that. You may think thats good, you may think thats bad but thats just the way it was. Where we are now, and i dont have to belabor this point, but we are a totally Fragmented Society depending on your political views or your lifestyle. You are getting your news in one way and your neighbor is getting his or her to use another way. There is no agreedupon facts about anything. We are in our silos. We dont talk to each other. We are not hearing the same thing were talking about th same thing. Personally i am not sure that is a good thing. But it is what it is. I think kennedy and those were probably prescient. Maybe they saw what was coming or they were criticizing something they certainly did not anticipate the internet, but here we are. Independent line. Good morning. Thank you for cspan and mr. Mann. The question has to do with the rules and ethics of Political Campaigns, president ial campaigns. Historically and up until especially the present day, is there a commission or a set of rules that campaigns must follow to make sure the campaign ads are done properly or outside of slander . Excellent question. In the 1960s, there was a federal commission, a nonpartisan commission that Fair Election Practices Commission did not have a whole lot of teeth to it but it could make some judgments and pronouncements and declare that this spot was unfair or maybe embarrass a candidate into removing an ad or changing an ad. But the prevailing the prevailing rules since the advent of television have been the federal Elections Commission and the principle enshrined in our law and the in our constitution that the political speech is the most highly protected form of speech. Candidates have generally been able to say whatever they want to say in their ads and television stations cannot and this goes to broadcast television, cannot censor those. They cant tell them that you cant say that. It is a highly protected form of speech. Candidates are mostly governed by the judgment of voters and the people, if i say this, it is not that it is wrong or illegal, it is will the voters react horribly to it . Will it backfire on me . Honestly that is the main check that candidates and the candidate committees, not third Party Committees which are under different rules, but candidates can pretty much say what they want. More of your calls momentarily and some comments and questions on texting twitter in a moment on this joint production on the history of Television Campaign ads in president ial races. With Professor Robert man. Lets move on to two ads from the 1968 campaign. [tense music] music it is time for an honest look at the problem of order in the United States. Dissent is a necessary ingredient of change. But in a system of government that provides for a peaceful change, there is no cause that justifies resort to violence. Let us recognize that the first civil right of every american is to be free from domestic violence. So i pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States. [laughter] [laughter] bob, first on the nixon ad, the tagline, vote like your whole world depended on it. That was very reflective of the goldwater ad in your heart you know hes right. Very strong statements. I love the goldwater statement. I always tell my students thats a great example that you really have to focus group year tagline, because it didnt take the johnson a campaign five minutes to respond to, in your heart, you know he is right, with the joinder in your guts, you know he is nuts, or in your heart, you know he might. [laughter] it is a thailands really big in those days. Reflection of the sense that republicans and conservatives had that the world was coming apart. Traditional conservative, this desire for law and order. It has been a way of expressing that for a very long time. One observation on that tagline from twitter from cynthia, she says, 1964s in your heart, you know he is right becomes suburbs under threat in 2020. On to the laughing but add a people locking spirit agony. Did people get that ad the mocking of the ad, of spiro agnew . Yes and no. It is in the same spirit of the daisy ad in that it is using knowledge, information, emotions that voters already have. Or at least it is trying to. The voters are expected to do some of the work. That agnew of october of 1968, in the voters mind, was certainly not the aga knew of 1974 in voters minds. But there were questions about his morality. He was making statements that were mildly embarrassing to the republicans. He was a largely unknown person. It was just a way of ridiculing, calling him a lightweight or an unknown. I think that spot probably would have had much more resonance if you had run it in 1972 or 1974 than 1968. Robert in clearwater, florida. He asked how much did a commercial cost back in the fifties and sixties to run . Excellent question. It depends. If you are going to it depends what show you are running it in. A little bit dependent on your production costs. The daisy girl spot, it cost around 25,000 to buy the time on in bc to run it for one minute, and probably another 10,000 to 20,000 to produce. I cant imagine what that would be in 2020, but it was not cheap. It still is not cheap to by a minute of time on Network Television that is that is very expensive. Thats why you dont necessarily that is why you dont see a lot of spots. Candidates prefer going to local media markets where they can get cheaper time and more efficiency for their money. York, on the republican line. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. Looking back, so much has changed since the early days. The media also plays a role in it. The news was much less opinions. We just had newspapers and television and radio. I love the president ial advertisements, but i do still keep in mind that their advertisements. I was wondering, since so much has changed with social and everything, how many people do you think are really affected with these ads . Are they worth the money spent on them . Has that changed from the 1950s when it started till now . And that is the essential question of this, what difference does it make . I started out in my book on the daisy girl spot thinking it destroyed Barry Goldwaters candidacy. What i found is that it didnt. It had very little impact, becausebefore that spot aired, goldwater was going to lose the race. After that spot, and very rough spots to Johnson Campaign aired some of the race was virtually unchanged. Goldwater was cruising to lose. He lost by an historic margin. I think even to davies as are not as effective or determinative as you think. 3 , 4 of the voters are undecided. The candidates are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and get a small percentage of, many of whom may not vote at all. I think they are impervious to this stuff, but candidates have been doing this for time immemorial and i think a lot of campaigns do it because they dont know what else to do. At the local statewide races congressional races mayors races, i think we do make a difference. Many voters do not have a lot of information about the candidates. Newspapers are going out of business tv stations are airing less and less political news, so a lot of information that voters get is not from the media. They get it from the campaign commercials. Heres don in oklahoma independent line. Either. Yes, robert . I have several questions. One thing they said that biden about biden in the last segment, about blaming trump for all the coronavirus. He did the best he could, you didnt match butter than biden or obama, but anyway. He posted how many empty chairs are there at the table. I wondered how many of these empty chairs a little high chairs that the democrats are putting at these tables. Another thing about the replacement of the supreme justice john will let you go were focusing on tv ads. Many thanks for comment. Hello . Hi there youre on the air. Good morning professors. When i see that commercial, when you showed it this morning, it took me back to when i was seven years old. Its amazing. Its amazing not the first part of course but the second part. I always wondered why i was so scared of nuclear war. The other thing i want to ask you was i dont know if you could answer it, it seems like during the seventies, didnt have to be like when carson used to be on, didnt one president ial or one person say trump and biden were both running, didnt they have to have the same exact time . One couldnt have more time than the other one . On tv . Thanks for that mary. The equal time is what shes referring to. Yeah and thats one of the reasons why we dont have debates for a while there between 1960 1976. Because that fairness doctrine. He wouldve had to have at least Lyndon Johnson who dont debate he wouldve insisted on every Third Party Candidate being on the stage. That was a big factor in politics having politicians on for interviews you had nixon coming on yet to have give equal time to im free we dont have that anymore because we recognize that these news organizations could use their judgment and most people are pretty happy with giving media organizations the ability to make that decision than having the federal government impose on both sides certain time that they have to be on the air. Question about the broader issue of advertising from bob in tennessee. Says good morning, at some point later on would doctor man compared the evolution of campaign ads to trends in commercial tv ads over the same time . Thats a really interesting question. I think they do sort of i think the product advertising always leads the way. I think that is because i have thought about this a lot, ive decided that its because bars of soap can talk back to the advertising executive. Politicians can and do. And they tend liberals and conservatives tend to be very conservative with a small see, when it comes to their image. And the kind of messages and tactics theyre willing to use in their heads. Thats why pull stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower or very hesitant to go on tv and you spot advertising in 1952. Does they want to be dignified they dont want to do something that is undignified or boomerangs on them. I think if you want to know where political advertising is going, sometimes you see were product advertising is today that maybe where political advertising is in five to ten years. Were talking about the history of president ial Campaign Advertising with doctor man American History tv is on every weekend on cspan 48 hours of history we welcome you to join us on cspan three every weekend. Lets move on to the year of 1980. Jimmy carter running for reelection against Ronald Reagan. Heres a look. He today many people come to the oval office with advice and information. When it comes to decide something, president carter must decide alone. No matter how many advisers and assistance, a president could never escape the responsibility of truly understanding an issue himself. That is the only way a president ial decision can be made. The only way this president has ever made one. President carter. I deeply deeply resent and offended by the attacks that president carter has made of my husband. The personal attacks his attempt to paint my husband as a man that he is not. He is not a warmonger, hes not a man who is going to throw the elderly out on the street and cut off their social security. That is a terrible thing to say about anyone. Thats campaigning on fear. Theres many issues that are at stake. I would like mr. Carter to explain to me why the inflation is as high as it is, why unemployment is as high as it is, i would like to have him explain the vacillating week Foreign Policy. So our friends overseas dont know what we are going to do. Or that we are going to stand up for them, or we are not going to stand up for them. And the issue of this campaign, is his three and a half year record. The time is now for strong leadership. Bob mann my first observation on the jimmy carter ad, its dark. The room is dark the ad itself is dark. I understand he got a fair amount of pushback from using the oval office in a Political Campaign did he not . Absolutely. Now is not something i was seen then or now is proper using the white house itself as a stage for a blatant political spot. President trump gets some criticism for the events that the Campaign Events hes held at the white house, as if this is the first time its been done jimmy carter did it. It was another spot that carter aired that year on air force one. He not only use the oval office in that spot, is another spot that carter aired that he was sitting at his Oval Office Desk appearing to be praying. It was about carters faith. It looked like he was bowing his head at the oval office this is what we are seeing now is not exactly new in american politics. I was reminded that she is not very quite she was an actress. That was your career. She spoke well on camera was she the first potential future first lady to appear in an ad . Im not aware of another one. I think she was the first one to appear spring idling returning to air force base after the assassination of president kennedy. The first time that i am aware of that the candidates wife is actually speaking and not just speaking but to talk about how wonderful her husband is, but its a clever i think effective use of the candidates wife to attack the other candidate. Its kind of softens the blow. Heres Ronald Reagan campaign saying jimmy carter is attacking us and its unfair, and she quickly sort of pivots to attacking jimmy carter. Theres sense to certainly was they could be seen as protests in the attacks and attacking back the good in his soft way. Nancy reagan was an actress but the other thing about that which is effective shes clearly not reading from a teleprompter. Shes talking which i think in these spots when you see spots where a candidate is clearly conversing rather than reading a teleprompter i think those are always more effective. They see more authentic and genuine. Whats more is part of her criticism is the substantive policy criticism of vacillating Foreign Policy that she speaks about jimmy carter and ignoring our allies interests overseas which has some reflection of the current tone of the 2020 campaign. Yeah thats the thing about the spots when you start looking at going back to eisenhower answers america was 22nd spots that they were run in 1950 to go look at those and itll be got smacked and how the themes from these earlier campaigns are still the themes that were talking about today. High energy prices, corruption in government, the degradation of our standing across the world. These are not old issues. The same old clothes just different people wearing them. Your calls and questions well go to the phones now when you counsel delaware on the republican line. Yes im calling about joe biden being on television so much. Im getting so sick of it. I called the Cable Company the other day, and tell them that i think they should send my money for this month. Because all i see when i sit down 84 years old i just want to watch television all i see is joe biden telling his lies. That meant lies so badly talk about trump, they found out that another one of his sons had cancer, four years later. Okay robert democrats line. Good morning. Im calling a want to point somehow thats not discussed. Its how much money is going to all these networks and various television stations and things like that. I mean so much of this money are we donating to these campaigns were given to the campaign the campaign is giving into all these companies. Its a little ridiculous and its so much money that i feel like there must be a better way to do this. Was some sort of a pseudopublic kind of thing a shared time and things like that. Thats what i had to say. Okay robert. I couldnt agree more. I couldnt agree more i think youre absolutely right. I havent done it this year with one of my classes, before years ago i took the 2 10 or so battleground states and what the undecided was and took much money the campaigns are spending in those states to try to influence that three or 4 those undecided. You get a cost per vote. How many hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to influence these very small slice of the electorate. Many of whom my philosophy is if you are undecided at this point in the president ial election, and theres incumbent running he really undecided between the challenge or not voting at all. You already made your mind up mostly about the incumbent. Campaigns should be smarter to put that money into organizing, field organizing and direct voter contact to the labor that takes years. And there is the problem. Most of this money is raised in the last few months of the campaign. They really need it back in april and march to begin doing the kind of work that you would need to be doing. When you get 10 Million Dollars dumped in your lap three weeks before the election is only one thing you could do with it. Thats putting it into advertising. A couple comments here common from michael in oregon. I have to roberts books, walter joko and daisy petals. And recommend him to everyone. Question as the guests cena daisy petals commercial of comparable power in this election or any other since 1964 . If not why not . Well by power, i would argue that the daisy girls spot was powerful not because it change a lot of votes, even though its solidified some votes against perry goldwater. The daisy girls spot was powerful mainly because it change the way we thought about political advertising. It changed the methods of advertising. It completely revolutionized political advertising. I would say no. Because maybe maybe we will see this we will see this shortly, the 1984 morning in shortly, the america spots Ronald Reagan ran. 1984 morning in america spot that ronald that spot is comparable reagan ran when he was running for reelection. In some ways that spot is comparable in some ways. I would not say it revolutionized political advertising. Im not sure there is, anything to compared to. Bob and we have that lined up next. 1984, it starts with that morning in america. Lets look. Its morning again in is morning again in america. America. Today, more men and today more men and women women will go to work than ever before in our will go to work than ever countrys history. Before in our Nation History with Interest Rates at half the record highs of 1980. With Interest Rates at about half the record highs more families will buy new homes than in any time in of 1980. 1000 families will buy new the last four years. Homes. Lower than at any time in the this afternoon, 6500 past four years. This young men and women will be afternoon, married and with inflation 6500 young men and women less than half of what it was four years ago, they can look will be married at inflation forward with confidence to half of what it was four years the future. Ago. Take a look forward with its morning again in confidence to the future. Its morning again in america. America and under the and under the leadership of president leadership of president reagan, our country is prouder, and stronger reagan, our country is. And stronger and better why would better. Why would you want to return where we were we ever better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were four short years ago . There is a bear in the woods. For some people, the bear is easy to see. Others dont see it at all. Some say the bear is tame. Others say is vicious and dangerous. Since no one can be sure who is right, isnt it smart to be as strong as the bear if there is a bear . music and know they love you music ok, going back to morning in america, being a fan of voices, he may have done campbells soup and everything. He was very familiar voice over guy at the time the soft focus seem to have everything that it needed. Yes, it really did. I think that is one of the best spots and i think you could argue i have not looked at the polling, but i think you could argue that that spot was truly an effective spot. Maybe it didnt win votes, but it was made to confirm the general feeling that people in the United States had that things were better and they were better because of reagans policies. Its an idealized view of america certainly not everyone would have argued that was the state of the country, but it did summarize the zeitgeist and reinforce peoples feelings that things are moving in the right direction and it goes to what i was saying earlier about using the madison avenue techniques. Theres a documentary that was produced a few years ago the compare that spot to a pepsi add using almost the exact same images. The pepsi was using to advertised its product. That morning in america spot is really the culmination of the marriage between washington political advertising and madison avenue. And on the mondale spot, the teachers children spot, obviously some echoes of the daisy at of 1964, but the use of that song, was that one of the first times that a group crosby stills nationalists case gave permission for a campaign to use what was a hit song of theirs. Well im not aware of any other spot, it may be wrong about this but im not aware of any other spot that used very widely recognized popular song. There was other music that was recognizable. Nixons campaign used a lot of music in his spots in 1968. I think youre right the first time you saw popular rock group having its music being used in a spot like that. Lets hear from doug up next in palmer, alaska. Wasnt bill moyers strongly associated with developing the daisy ad . Right now its pretty obvious that they are strongly associated with helping the Democratic Party. Bill moyers was one of the most trusted aides that Lyndon Johnson. He did not become a journalist until after he left the white house. He was tangentially involved in the daisy girl add. It was produced by the madison avenue firmer doyle dale and burned back which is still a prominent advertising firm. They produced that ad and brought it to Lyndon Johnson to show brought it to show to Lyndon Johnson and his people. The night that it showed on television, johnson started to get some phone calls from friends who are reacting to the spot, some of them reacting negatively and moyers is called to the second floor of the white house and johnson its having dinner with some friends and johnson makes quite a production out of dressing moyers down about the spot and telling him to look into this. He turns, goes back to the elevator. Moyers says that johnson follows him to the elevator instead, do you think we really only run it once . Johnson was recognizing it was a good spot. More years did to and he might have been in on the decision to tell them not to air it again but he is nothing to do with its creation. Bob, democrats line. Hello, good morning. Yes, i want to comment. I guess im old enough to remember how things were back in 19 64 and i remember in 1964 that ad, the daisy ad, it was very effective, but it was also really accurate. At the time, goldwater, he was very radical about the use of nuclear weapons. He was also a racist, which people do not bring up, but he was. He voted against the 1964 Voting Rights act or the 1965 ad, but he voted no and he black Voting Rights and he was a known racist. The people knew it. And it worked in the southern states. And many people in the Democratic Party switched parties, the dixie crowds and aligned with the southern republicans. But from that point on, the next go around with nixonagnew, he did have serious problems. I dont remember all of them now but i think it was pretty well known and that is why that ad was so effective back then. All right, bob. Robert mann. To his point about 1964. There was a lot of knowledge in the voters minds gold waters vote of civil rights. It wasnt a secret he was one of the few republicans voted against the 1964 civil rights act. Johnsons campaign believed that they would make that that they would focus on that. And theyre polling and in the research and they came up with their conclusion that the what was much more effective was the United States fear going to war with the soviet union. What was going to be a flight of spots attacking goldwater over civil rights became maybe four or five spots that attacked him on the issue of nuclear war and proliferation. His opposition to the Nuclear Test Ban treaty. It wasnt near estimation and i think they were probably right, it was a more effective message to put forth because of voters were just much more aware of where goldwater stood on nuclear war men where he stood on civil rights. Comment from outearn oklahoma. He says, please keep in mind that many families did not own televisions at the timeframe being discussed. How is a saturation of tv households were talking 1952 where we are in the 19 eighties. . Among in 1952 very about 50 million homes with televisions in them. Every home had roughly one television. By 19641968, 1970s, 1980s, every home had a television. It was really total saturation. Even today there are people who do not have televisions and dont watch tv, but remember in in those days all you had to do was have an antenna. You did not have to pay for cable. It was a lot easier to see this programming that maybe it is today. Maybe people in rural areas to get the kind of reception people did not pay for cable back in 1964, 1972 areas host 1972. But we are glad that they are paying for it now. An American History tv on cspan 3, we welcome our viewers of the washington journal 90 minute special focusing on the history president ial campaign ads with our guests robert mann Mass Communications professor from louisiana State University. Lets move ahead to the 1988 race of george h. W. Bush and michael dukakis. Bush and dukakis on crime. Bush supports the Death Penalty for murderers dukakis Willie Horton received 10 weekend passes run prison. Despite a life sentence, horton received ten weekend passes from prison. Harden fled kidnapped young couple, stabbing the man and repeatedly raping is girlfriend. We can prison passes, dukakis on crime. George bush talks about prison furloughs, but he will not tell you that the Massachusetts Program was started by republican and stopped by governor dukakis. Bush will not talk about this furlough dealer drug dealer that was furlough. Bush will talk about this drug pusher, raped and murdered patsy pregnant, pregnant mother of two. The real story on furloughs is that george buses taken a furlough from the truth. Who is behind the fame infamous Willie Horton . Add that ad was produced by a thirdparty Political Organization that was very closely aligned with the Republican Party, called the National Security back. When it was taken off, the Bush Campaign immediately went on the air with a much more there is a program that showed a revolving door, check the whole program most situ since. And showed a revolving door these people going in and out that they were going in and out of a prison. A mansion will be hordes horton. He wasnt the only figure discussed in that spot, but it was based on the Willie Horton spot. A lot of people confuse the two. They thought that Willie Horton spot was a bush ad. It really wasnt but it was some kind of coordination between the two campaigns in producing. That they were so closely aligned. Its fair to say that its worth pointing out that will be horton or at least will be horton specifically, but the whole for a program in the primaries in that debate in the new york by all, gordon was running for the democratic nomination against michael dukakis. He raised the Furlough Program first and republicans picked it up in the general election. Democrats though they use that revolving door imagery in their response at didnt they . Yeah thats one of those things that i have always found a little curious. Nancy reagan did in the spot that we showed earlier. It was one of the principles that the political communicators try to tell their candidates dont repeat the charge. That whole Dukakis Campaign was a study i want to be too strong and saying competence. He was really poorly run campaign in so many ways. The Caucus Campaign waited way too long to respond. She those two spots juxtaposed. And there is one spot showing and voters a few minutes later seeing another spot on television. It was several weeks before the caucus figured out how to respond. That was the story of the Dukakis Campaign. They looked at reportedly 1000 different scripts for spots before the Fall Campaign ran. They delayed invalid over them and they just werent as nimble. Thats why 1992 you saw bill Clinton Institute of war room to respond more quickly to these kind of charges. He was called flatfooted, and he never recovered from the furlough spot spots that bush ran against him. For example the Death Penalty. I recognize that voice from the dukakis response that. The very wellknown washington base but an artist by larry lieu mint. The people who did these ads in the voice over artist or actors, they were found a disadvantage of them being labeled as one Political Party or the other . I dont know. I havent heard of anyone being labeled as one party or another. It may be the case. I never focus on that too much. I would like to point out that something we covered that didnt mention early on, talking about voice overs. If you remember to the beginning of the program if you saw bob spot both voices were mel blanc that were the voice of begs bernie and amara. And the other spot, the ike like ike was produced by disney. Well disneys brother. There are these great examples of prominent people well known people well known voice actors were involved in these spots. That dont get the credit they deserve. And they probably dont often want to credit. Theyre just voice actors. As i understand that theyre generally doing it for the paycheck. Theyre not going out and find the republican voice actor or put the Political Consultants are looking for particular voice not a voice to the person who agrees with the politics. Lets hear from our on the republican line. Good morning. Morning. I have a question about the progression km n sorry yours breaking up. We cant really hear what youre saying. Maybe try dialing back in. Next up rocky on the republican line. Yes. I wanted to make a statement in regards to the use of the money that the democrats get and used for these commercials. It would be better used given the people in this world, that are without the money so that they can leave a decent life like they are supposed to be. Thats all ive got to say. God bless you. Bob kind of address that any further response . Well the thing is we spent a lot of time talking about how much money is spent on these ads, it is a lot of money. Its billions of dollars 600 Million Dollars is a lot of money for any family. But its a fraction of what cocacola spends every year on its advertising. You look at the total advertising budgets of some of these major corporations, the total amount of money that is spent on Advertising Products of all stripes across the board. The amount of political advertising is a drop in the bucket. When makes it seem like its so obscene, is that its mostly compressed in the last two months to six weeks of a campaign. By the time election that comes along, feels like you see nothing but political ads. But theyre actually really concentrate in the last few weeks of a campaign. It is sort of magnifies in the voters mind how much money is being spent. Relatively speaking its not that much. On sundays here on washington journal welcome our viewers from the uk in a partnership with the Bc Parliament channel in this final hour of the program. We say good morning in the uk. This is dennis either. Hi good morning. Having successfully fought against republican Voter Suppression in florida, both and 68 and in 2000, i was wondering, it always seems like its the republicans suppressing the vote. I was there any evidence of democrats trying to suppress the vote . Dennis i would like to say you should be a voice actor you should consider narrating a spot. Thats a good question i think that when you see right now, when youve seen over the last 20 years are republicans pushing for talking about voters didnt use Voter Suppression detect about ballot integrity. Its republicans who are mostly talking about that not democrats. I think its because of the generally agreed a piece not accurate but they generally agreed sucks position the more people vote, the better it is marginally for democrats. Democrats tend to turn out more and bring elections, in president ial election years. And these elections that are gonna be decided by small margins, all these tactics come into place. Where political advertising comes into this, im sort of talking around the question by like to bring it back to political advertising if i could. Thats that theres a sense that has been around in Political Science for a long time. I think it has maybe fallen into disfavor a little bit. Negative advertising the presses voter turnout. If we can make the campaign as negative as possible, if we make it as nasty as possible people will be turned off. We used to be this sense that republicans and some democrats would want you to be disgusted in walk away. Thats why we have so Much Negative advertising. I dont think its the case or the sensibility the most candidates have now, it really just one attack the other side to gain an advantage. Hes to be seen for a long time, as a Voter Suppression tool. Question from carl in michigan. He says mr. Mann can you comment on the ads as Brand Awareness and brand reinforcement versus the advent of branding the enforcement the opponent by going negative. Also interesting that the media is the enemy of the state yet election years are boom years and revenue from media companies. Billions of dollars mountain to Companies Whose boards and leadership are typically conservative, and their frontline employees are accused of being biased. It sounds like an contradicting myself a little bit these tv stations in news organizations are happy to have that money and there is a lot of it that comes in at a very short and very small timeframe. And it all diminishing the impact of the impact of the money and the local tv stations of having that. Money although once if you are living in a swing state and youre seeing a bunch of political ads, youre probably not seeing as many ads for trial lawyers and car dealers. It will start seeing those on november 4th. And maybe get sick of those all over again. I was the first question . So about the difference between branding versus going negative and attacking the brand if you will. Thats a great question. I think we will see in the next campaign eventually were gonna see in 2000 will see this bio spot that al gore ran. I think will see one that john kerry runs in 2004. It used to be really common that candidates would run these minute long bio spots george w. Bush ryan won in 1988. It introduced myself to the voters. Brian myself as the person that i am. Dont see those so much anymore. I think its because by the time the fall action occurs, everyone knows of these candidates. Are you dont have to do anything theyve been branding themselves all year. Needs to be on the local level state and local level, its still very common to see those bio spots as an effort to brand and heres the other part of it. The opposition bill clinton did this in 96 famously to bob dole. Started early early in the year, earlier than most president ial candidates do. Advertising attack spots against bob dole. To. Brand him and label him before he did it for himself. Well get to those outs from 2004, it is 20 minutes left in our history president ial Campaign Advertising with our guest from louisiana State University robert man. Lets move on to 1992. The 1990 to race the ads in that campaign. I was born in a little town called Hope Arkansas three months after my father died. I remember the tools tory house where i live my grandparents. And very limited incomes. It was in 1963 that i went to washington and met president kennedy. I remember just thinking would incredible country this was. That someone like me with no money or anything, would be given the opportunity to meet the president. Thats when i decided i could really do public service. I cared so much about people. I work my way through law school parttime jobs. Anything i could find. After i graduated, i didnt care about making a lot of money. I want to go home and see if i can make a difference. We worked hard in education and health care. To create jobs, and we made real progress. Not exhilarating to me to think as president , i can help to change all or peoples lives for the better. And bring hope back to the american dream. I dont believe him. I dont believe in one but. I dont believe him. Trust. I dont know much about clinton except promises. He tells everyone what do you want to hear. You want to spend more money the only place you could get it is the taxpayers. Higher taxpayer higher taxes. Lets close on the kids back. I do know how we could take any more taxes. Less money to go to the doctor. Hes gonna raise taxes in arkansas hell raise taxes here. Raise everything. Whos the best qualified person here on the stage to create jobs . Make your decision vote on november 3rd. I suggest you might consider someone whos the best person to manage money. I suggest you pick the best person that managed money. Look at the record make your decision. Finally who would you give your pension fund, and your savings account to to manage and last one who would you asked to be the trustee of your state and take care of your children if something happen to you . Im doing this for you, i want you to have the american dream. And the American People. So the American People. Im doing this because i love you. That said. This is the most elise produce least slick had will see in the bunch we see today. In some ways its my favorite. Just because it is so an produced. Its just pure ross perot into your living room. I like it i really like it. I dont think it was an ineffective mad at all. In my look at it and say it was unpolished. But it it capture the essence of ross perot. His humanity, his plain spoken is, is authenticity. And a man from hope at the correct . That dude is a bio ad as we were talking about. Our look that when we were talking about earlier. That to me is a masterpiece. Now is a distillation a 62nd distillation of a 15 minute film that was produced by thompson who was a very successful Hollywood Television producer who had several designing women and these two very pop issues in the time. She and her husband harry were very good friends with the clintons and work from that same part of the world. A produced is bio spot, and it was shown at the Democratic Convention in new york in 1992. I was there and i saw it and it was electrifying. It was very effective. Here is clinton this graduate of georgetown, and yale oh for a lot of people who dont know much about him at the time that he was a child of privilege that he had grown up in wealth. This film was really design and showing he came from the hardline. He came from a modest means. He was one of us. The idea that he was born in a town called hope it was perfect. You can write a better script van name of a hometown for a political candidate. And then, and you literally hae bill clinton shaking hands in the rose garden with john f. Kennedy. It was not just a rhetorical connection, a physical connection and i think it was bio really one of the best spots we have seen. And its really a masterpiece. Its just a beautiful piece of advertising. Host this is tom political advertising. Lets get back to calls. Want to get a couple sets of ads before we wrap up. This is tom democrats line from maryland. A law professor. Thank you very much for coming on. I was just very interested in the bush ad that you showed of Willie Thornton. It reminds me how push ran largely to expand recognize him and reagan ran a law in order president. I think reagan created these anecdotal images like Willie Thornton in the welfare queen was a good and wrong image from reagan. My question is, as this message become less effective as a form of propaganda with the Trump Campaign . How do you think this form of racism connects with the average white voters these days as opposed to back in the eighties and maybe in nixon. Okay tom thank you. Well i think bush was mostly effective in doing this, because dukakis was so inept in responding to. It theyre probably were better ways to respond to it special certainly quicker ways. He was flatfooted and inept kennedy in so many ways. The most effective use of the law in order, i think of what we have seen is when its a challenger critiquing the governance of the incumbent. So that Richard Nixon very effectively challenging our portraying the world under a Lyndon Johnson democratic presidency. That was affective. I probably think it was less effective for the incumbent to be saying if you elect me, or reelect my or elect my opponent rather youll have the conditions you now. Its a hard argument you could make. Thats why its not been a very effective message for president trump. Now the republican line. Bradley in west virginia. Hi. Good morning. Thank you for cspan. I was disappointed that he skipped in 1976 election with ford and carter. Gerald fords presidency had the fact that they had to face election in two years. Their Foreign Policy was restricted. It had to take a backseat to domestic policy in the election. I was wondering, what would you have to say about the 1976 campaign. That campaign those ads were interesting. It was a rough campaign. Its kind of interesting to know how those two candidates became very good friends later on in life. Jimmy carter delivered the eulogy a general gerald fords funeral. He would never have imagined that will be possible to see the roughandtumble spots they were using. Jimmy carter basically is running against the corruption of the nixon administration. Promising tying Richard Nixon to gerald ford. Privacy and you start. If we had more time obviously wed want to show the wild spot that jimmy carter ran anchoring himself in the heartland values of georgia as a peanut farmer. Showing him on his in peanut farm, showing his hometown of planes. They were very effective as attack spots and more so of framing carter as a complete and total break from this corrupt Republican Administration that so many people still remember. We are barely two years since Richard Nixon had resigned in disgrace. I remind our callers you can read robert manns books about that entire topic. The book daisy petals and mushroom clouds. We can get everything but lets get to the 2000s here. Years the had in the 2000 campaign of george bush and al gore. Heres a look. 1969. America in turmoil. Ill go graduates college, his father a u. S. Senator opposes the vietnam war. Al gore has his doubts, but enlisted in the army. When it comes home from vietnam, the last thing he thinks youll ever do is enter politics. He starts a family, becomes an investigative reporter. Then al gore decided to change what was wrong in america, yet to fight for what was right. He ran for congress, held some of the first hearings of cleaning talks in weight. Made the environment is cause. Broke with his own party to support the call for. Fought to make reform. His point now is two enrich all our families not just a few. Strength and social security, take on Big Drug Companies and make Prescription Drugs for seniors. Tax cuts for working families and the middle class. Ill gore married 30 years, father of four fighting for us. Under clinton gore prescription price prices skyrocketed. George bush has a plan. At a Prescription Drug benefit for medicare. Every senior will have access to Prescription Drug benefit. Al gore al gore opposed bipartisan reform. Hes letting bureaucrats interfere with you doctor to prescribe. Seniors choose. Professor man, it was pointed out that that george w. Bush campaign on Prescription Drugs as a subliminal message in it. I tell you you see the flash, its called the rats ad. Tell us why . The word bureaucrat, its an ad about health care and Prescription Drug plans, its not an ad about sin at attacking its positive and negative. But when the word bureaucrat comes up on the screen for one third of a second, its enlarged and it says the last four letters rats. Some of you are somewhere that anyone connected with the Gore Campaign sought and alerted that this thing it had shown rats for a third of a second. And ensued several days long brouhaha of one of the Bush Campaign had planted a subliminal message into the spot. There are people who still have a very spirited argument of whether number one those kind of things work, or whether it was intentional or not. Its anyones guess at this point whether it was intentional third of a second its hard to imagine that anyone wouldve noticed. It it is a no one would notice it consciously. Unconsciously youd say the democrats were rats. To cabin in omaha Nebraska Democrats line. Go ahead. First of all thank you for your excellent presentation this morning. Very informative really enjoying it. I was wondering if i know traditionally the Campaign Start after labor day. But its the can genuine trend towards earlier balloting continues, is that particular thing legislated, unregulated. Is there a chance it might move earlier in the year to be more effective . Great question. I think its definitely change the way candidates are campaigning today. Who knows what the world will look like for years from now. But if the trend is towards much war early voting then i think sadly if youre not a fan of Political Campaigns are gonna see a longer political season. Traditionally the campaigns if youre living in one of the swing states, you put up with a year of this. Nationally if youre watching some of the national spots it might be on cnn, or fox or whatever. Probably not seeing those many great numbers until the last six weeks or two months of the campaign. Regardless, if youre living in a place like florida or ohio or michigan or wisconsin, you are going to be seeing spots like this all year on long. Lets even get to the 2004 adds lets take a look. I was born in colorado. My father was serving in the army air corps. Both my parents taught me about public service. I enlisted because i believed in service to country. I thought it was important if you had a lot of privileges as i had had to go to a Great University like yale, to give Something Back your country. The decisions he made save their lives. When he pulled me out of the river he saved his he rest his life to say mine. Over 30 years john various served america. If you look at my father time in service as to this country he is showing ability to fight for things that matter. John is the face of someone who is hopeful. Who is generous of spirit, and of heart. We are a country of optimists. We are the can do people. We just need to believe in ourselves again. A lifetime of service and strength, john kerry for president. Im john kerry high prove this message. That personally raped cut off years, cut off heads. The accusation that john kerry made against the veterans who served in vietnam was just devastating. Randomly shouted civilians. It hurt me more than any physical ones ahead. Cut off limbs and bono bodies. As part of the torture, the sign statement that you committed war crimes. Raise villages in a fashion reminiscent of genghis khan. John kerry give the enemy for free but i and many of my comrades in the prison camps had to take. Crimes coming up on a regular basis. He betrayed us in the past, how could you be loyal to him now . He dishonors country and the people who served with. He sold them out. Professor man thats 1000 for campaign famously that last at called the swift boat had, was the origin of that . I was one of four spots it was run by this Organization Called swift boat veterans for truth. It was a group of vets will many of whom have harbored when ill will vendetta against john kerry since 1971. When he testified against the vietnam war before the senate. Carrie begins his campaign, and this bio spot. So campaigners built around as valor in vietnam winning a bronze star purple heart and silver star. This thirdparty group, not associated with the Bush Campaign begins running these ads in several states. Attacking and undermining the validity of carries claims about how he won these medals. That quickly became a major issue in the campaign. Three example of how a Third Party Organization can run some ads very small expenditure and out balloons into a Major Campaign issue. Hes generating a lot of money. Becomes a centerpiece for the campaign. Bush was down five points on those started airing in august, but in the months theyre even in the polls. Those spots really destroyed john kerrys campaign. I was read more times morning. Robert mann Mass Communications professor lose louisiana State University. Thank you so much for spending time with us this morning. Thank you it was a lot of fun. Weeknights this month, we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan 3. Tuesday Night University of Mary Washington professor merrick discusses the life and legacy of thomas jefferson. And focus on his words towards slavery and race. As part of our great lives series. Enjoy this weekend every weekend on cspan 3. On lectures in history, mary allen petal of bell Mount University as well jennifer duck teach a class on president ial Campaign Advertising from the prints and cartoon ads of the 19th century to the Television Commercials of the mid 20th century to the internet and social media content of the present day. Beaumont university is located in nashville tennessee. To cluster the police all week prior to the school hosting this years second president ial debate. Hello everyone, so glad to have you