{"id":572,"date":"2016-04-05T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T19:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/?p=572"},"modified":"2016-04-05T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T19:15:08","slug":"political-ads-through-the-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/2016\/04\/05\/political-ads-through-the-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Ads Through the Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today in class we watched following famous campaign ad put out by LBJ in 1964:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"(High Quality) Famous &quot;Daisy&quot; Attack Ad from 1964 Presidential Election\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dDTBnsqxZ3k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We talked about this as an example of enthymeme, a type of rhetoric that lets us &#8220;fill in the blanks.&#8221; However, there are numerous other rhetorical strategies that can be employed in political ads, and I&#8217;ve rounded up a few below.<\/p>\n<p>While you might not realize it today, not all political ads are negative. Eisenhower in 1952 and JFK in 1960 both had catchy jingles to bring in votes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Political Ad\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rh6aIkvgyVk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JOHN KENNEDY CHAMPAIGN SONG\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7DoUiNxh6_0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Of the two, I think I like Ike&#8217;s better. It&#8217;s just a little catchier. Otherwise, there&#8217;s really not a lot of policy discussion going on in these.<\/p>\n<p>Now it&#8217;s time to go negative. First up Nixon&#8217;s challenger, McGovern, is attacked on his defense spending:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"McGovern Defense Plan Ad- Nixon 1972 Presidential Campaign Commercial\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qVcFUIXEDZ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is a pretty straightforward ad that comes right out and says: &#8220;McGovern will cut defense spending.&#8221; I particularly like the simple toy imagery here.<\/p>\n<p>In the next ad, Hubert Humphrey finds Spiro Agnew hilarious:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Humphrey laughing at Spiro Agnew 1968 political ad\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qwk_epMblW4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Humphrey would never be asked to play the Joker.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been watching CNN&#8217;s &#8220;Race to the White House&#8221; series (narrated by Kevin Spacey), these next two ads may look familiar. In the 1988 election, Bush did a great job of first setting the agenda to focus on security instead of economic concerns, where Dukkakis was more confident. The first ad, the famous &#8220;Willie Horton&#8221; ad, was not actually released by Bush&#8217;s campaign. The second focuses on a strong, lasting image with the revolving door.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Willie Horton 1988 Attack Ad\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Io9KMSSEZ0Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1988 George Bush Sr. &quot;Revolving Door&quot; Attack Ad Campaign\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PmwhdDv8VrM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m reminded of some postmodern theories like Postman&#8217;s, which focus on separating context from imagery. The campaign also featured what could be considered several &#8220;pseudo-events,&#8221; including the infamous attempt to stage shots of Dukkakis driving in\u00a0 a tank.<\/p>\n<p>Next, Reagan takes a different approach, appealing to patriotism.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ronald Reagan TV Ad: &quot;Its morning in america again&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EU-IBF8nwSY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Clearly, people who don&#8217;t vote for Reagan most likely hate America.<\/p>\n<p>To look at a non-presidential ad, in this ad, Dale Peterson wants your vote for Commissioner of Agriculture. This ad has everything. It appeals to patriotism, threatens you with &#8220;illegals busting in by the thousands,&#8221; and accuses his opponent of stealing signs and taking illegal bribes. He even gets in some ad hominem action, calling his opponent a &#8220;dummy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"We are Better than That!!!!!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jU7fhIO7DG0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>My favorite part is the way he silently pulls out the rifle at :51.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, here is what most people would agree is the greatest political ad ever created:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mike Gravel - Rock -\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0rZdAB4V_j8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I think this would be considered an <span>enthymeme.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today in class we watched following famous campaign ad put out by LBJ in 1964: We talked about this as an example of enthymeme, a type of rhetoric that lets us &#8220;fill in the blanks.&#8221; However, there are numerous other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/2016\/04\/05\/political-ads-through-the-years\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2680,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/media-culture-identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}