Daisy and the Bear
posted by Nate Oman
Campaign season got me trolling through YouTube today looking at old political ads. Needless to say, most of them are pretty bad but there are some that hold up remarkably well, particularlly those that manage to crytstalized an entire debate into a few well chosen images. For all of the debasement that TV has brought to American politics — and I say this as someone who proudly doesn’t have a television* — there is a fine rhetorical art to the campaign spot. For my money, here are two masterpieces:
While I am one of those who thinks that ultimately the Reagan defense build up was justified at the time, this is hardly the most powerful logical argument in its favor. On the other hand, I admire the way that it manages to be both alarmist and understated at the same time. Of course, sometimes the best way to be alarmist is simply to be alarmist.
Here, in contrast to Reagan, LBJ whipsaws from understatement to overstatement. Still, like “The Bear” it is a marvelous attack ad that manages to make its most telling negative point without even mentioning the oponent’s name.
Any other nominations for best political ad?
*Actually I have a TV, I just don’t have cable or a TV antenna. I do, however, have a subscription to Netflix and The Ecnomist, which is enough to keep me happy.
July 25, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Posted in: Politics
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Responses (3)
Howard Wasserman - July 26, 2008 at 2:56 pm
The two you select illustrate one effect of television–the length of the ads was halved from 1964 until 1984 and, at 1:00, Daisy now feels really long.
Matt - July 26, 2008 at 5:32 pm
It’s not just the length of adds that’s changed, it’s the pace and the amount of “movement” in them. The “bear” add feels so slow and meandering compared to an add today- hardly any “cuts” in it or graphics or anything. You can really notice this sort of change if you watch old movie previews from the late 70′s or very early 80′s (pre MTV, maybe?) It’s very odd, with a slow, plodding pace to them.
Jeffrey - July 28, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Gerhard Shroder of Germany once had an ad about his rather rotund opponent, Helmut Kohl:
A commercial playing in movie theaters shows four astronauts in a Star Trek setting about to be ”beamed” to another planet. When the beaming is over, one astronaut is left behind and he turns out to be a corpulent and befuddled Mr. Kohl. The message: the 68-year-old chancellor is ”not ready for the future.”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01EFDF1131F935A2575AC0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
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