I got assigned the 1952 presidential election, which pitted Republican Dwight Eisenhower against Democrat Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson. The election was a landslide victory for Eisenhower, winnign 55.9% of the popular vote and 422 Electoral votes to Stevenson’s mere 89. In part, it is likely Eisenhower on the election riding off of his merits as an extraordinarily successful general during the World War Two, wherein he was Supreme Allied Commander Europe, overseeing the invasions of France and Germany, notably D-Day. His win was also a reaction to 20 years of democratic control of the presidency, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt serving from 1932-1945 and Harry Truman serving from 1945 to 1953, where he was term limited.
By far my favorite ad was “Platform Double Talk” ironically from the eventual loser of the election, Stevenson. It was one of the few ads on either side that addressed specific issues. The attack add portrayed the GOP as a double headed man, with each head giving conflicting answers to questions; one says the US must leave Korea, the other says no, one says we must give economic aid to europe, the other says we shouldn’t. Even though I agreed with Eisenhower and the GOP platform in this election, the ad does a very good job at highlighting how confused voters must be by the contradictions within the GOP platform, which is an important issue. It implies that Stevenson and the Democrats will be plain and straightforward in their policy making. And as I said before, it was one of the few ads from this campaign with substance. Most of the other ads were accusing both sides of non specific corruption (seriously, they woule just call the other side corrupt and give no explanation) or were pointless musical jingles with no better message than reminding you the name of the candidate. “Platform Double Talk” was one of the few ads with an actual message.
I like how you talked about an ad with an actual message. As I watched my ads, there were some that I was confused about the point. One of the ads about Ford was a pastor talking about asking him what Ford would say if Playboy asked for an interview and then Ford’s response was that he already has been asked and he said no. Literally that was the ad and I was confused on what the point was.
I had to look at ads from the 1964 presidential election between Johnson and Goldwater. This election was also a landslide victory for Johnson. From an objective point of view I agree it was interesting to see which ads had substance and which did not. I ultimately think that Johnson’s adds had more substance but then again I lean toward the left and also cannot relate to many issues discussed by Goldwater in his campaign ads.