This commercial, “Formally titled “Peace, Little Girl,” but more commonly known as the “Daisy” ad, this famous political, commercial was produced primarily by Tony Schwartz for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign against Barry Goldwater.” This is not my favorite ad in the sense of genuinely liking it, but in a sense of a strange curiosity of the fear mongering that was rampant in the 1960’s. This ad was made with the intention of fear mongering citizens into voting for Johnson with a simple slogan of ” we must either love each other or die”. This enormous oversimplification of what was happening at the time was to create a sense of pressure in the American Citizen to vote for Johnson. It is so interesting the enormous juxtaposition of innocence and extreme fear with the young girl and the explosion. I find the commercial a fascinating example of fear mongering.
In my blog post, I also chose an ad that featured children to create a sense of emotional appeal during such an extreme situation such as nuclear war. I think this ad is in fact very inappropriate in the sense that voting for President Johnson would “prevent” events like this from happening. It makes me wonder how ad campaigns featuring very young children have changed over the years.
There’s a video we have of my little sister counting eggs in her Easter basket (messing up the numbers, too) and so I was immediately reminded of children’s innocence and youthfulness. Once the countdown started, I realized what the ad was referencing and then just felt fear/sadness. This is a great example of emotional appeal in advertising.
The emotional manipulation in thiscommercial is disturbing. Now, at a time when nuclear warfare is not at the forefront of the US public’s minds- like said above, this just triggers “fear” and “sadness”… so I cannot imagine how emotional an individual would be if they viewed this commercial of a sweet child getting blown up by something they cannot even begin to understand. A president should emphasize ways they can protect the nation, not filling the public’s head with possible horrors of what would happen if they did not elect them. I feel this represents negative leadership qualities. Effective… but negative- fear is a dangerous weapon.
This ad is infamous, and with good reason. Its fear mongering and combination of the girl counting and the nuclear explosion are terrifyingly effective.