Vote Tuesday – The Daisy Political Ad.

The Daisy Girl

    “The most famous of all campaign commercials, known as the ‘Daisy Girl’ ad, ran only once as a paid advertisement, during an NBC broadcast of “Monday Night at the Movies” on September 7, 1964. Without any explanatory words, the ad uses a simple and powerful cinematic device, juxtaposing a scene of a little girl happily picking petals off a flower (actually a black-eyed Susan), and an ominous countdown to a nuclear explosion. The ad was created by the innovative agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, known for its conceptual, minimal, and modern approach to advertising. The memorable soundtrack was created by Tony Schwartz, an advertising pioneer famous for his work with sound, including anthropological recordings of audio from cultures around the world. The frightening ad was instantly perceived as a portrayal of Barry Goldwater as an extremist. … The ad was replayed in its entirety on ABC’s and CBS’s nightly news shows, amplifying its impact.” The Living Room Candidate (Museum of Moving Image) Funny thing, that ad being run by Lyndon Johnson, the biggest war-monger in US history, selected as he was, by assassination, to ramp up the Viet Nam War. Always gaslighting and inversion…

     I lived through the time of “duck and cover” and the Cuban Missile Crisis. In spite of it all, I felt much safer in America then. Life went on and the rhetoric around nuclear war was toned down and efforts were made at “peaceful coexistence.” The fact that our current government has declared that America now has a “first strike” policy should be terrifying for everyone this election day, especially since our antiquated nuclear weapons have been out paced by the hypersonic missiles of Russia and China.