The Big Bang of Attack Ads

It all started with a "Big Bang" on Monday evening September 7, 1964.

The first political TV spot for a president created by an ad agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, aired that evening on NBC's Monday Night at the Movies. And much like the probable beginning of the Universe, the background noise of that one ad which made just one sixty second appearance is still very much in evidence in how political consultants work to create a negative impression of opposing candidates.

The creator of this famous TV spot dubbed DAISY, Tony Schwartz, died on June 15th. Daisy was the first and most successful attempt to use the power of sight, sound and motion to swing an election and in 1964, helped create a landside victory for Lyndon Johnson over his opponent Barry Goldwater. Daisy worked on several levels, which have rarely, if ever, been equaled since. It is a masterpiece of the theme "less is more." A theme that marketers of every stripe, both political and commercial, should take serious note of and try to emulate today.

The spot starts with a little girl picking daisies in a meadow and counting aloud as she plucks each petal. She mixes up her numbers, which brilliantly reinforces the innocence of a small child. Then a man's voice is heard counting down from ten. It's official sounding -- like something right out of the Pentagon War Room. As the countdown proceeds the camera zooms in on the little girl's face, and then her eye and finally from her eye the image of an atomic blast appears and fills the screen. Next you heard President Johnson quote several lines taken form a W.H. Auden poem about how "we must love each other or surely we will die." And finally a professional voice over announces to vote for President Johnson on November 3rd. "The stakes are too high to do anything else."

For those of you not alive at the time or old enough to remember, Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater, was a right wing hawk to the extreme and was happy to be quoted on a regular basis that we "should nuke Vietnam" nuke China" and "lob a nuke into the men's room in the Kremlin." It really didn't take a ballistic missile expert to figure out the best way to beat Goldwater was to remind people of his well-known and seemingly cavalier attitude toward nuclear war. As mentioned above, Daisy ran just one time. Take note that Goldwater was never mentioned by name in the spot. Immediately after the spot ran the Goldwater camp called NBC and demanded it pull the ad. They did, but not before alerting the general press and rival TV networks of the Goldwater reaction. And thus, Daisy became front page news for weeks including an article in TIME and a picture on the September 14th cover -- at a time when over twenty million people read TIME religiously each week. Talk about viral marketing long before the term was invented. After Daisy, Goldwater never had a remote chance of winning the election. The only question that concerned President Johnson was how big would his landside and mandate be for his first full term after taking over a year earlier upon the tragic murder of President Kennedy.

Was Daisy the first negative political TV spot? Yes. Was it the most effective of all time? Yes. Have ad experts since followed the rules and methods Tony Schwartz employed so brilliantly along with his production team? No. In memory of Mr. Schwartz, I think it is high time we understand that Daisy was not about being negative but rather truthful. And that the truth when used correctly is the most powerful weapon a candidate has in depicting the fault lines of their opponent.

I think Tony Schwartz would agree with these rules for creating powerful and effective political advertising.

1. Focus in on the one major issue that your opponent is dead wrong about and make that the theme of your TV and radio advertising.

2. Remember that the most powerful device for delivering a message into a consumer's mind for keeps is the use of sound with unique cadence, and inflection - either by itself on the radio or to make a visual image an unforgettable, powerful image.

3. Never "tell the whole story." Let the consumer's mind pick up cues and do the work of "connecting the dots."

4. Never mention your opponent by name. (Henry Clay was the first presidential contender to learn this fact the hard way in 1844, when he lost to James Polk in what should have been a landslide for Clay--see my book Powerlines for details).

5. Say as little as possible at the close of a spot. Use a few well-chosen words to make it crystal clear what is at stake if you do not win.

We now finally have two candidates for the upcoming election. Both have plenty of political ammo for using the rules above and creating advertising that could turn the election in their favor. Another spot with the modern day impact of Daisy? Entirely possible. But only if we pay our respects to the man who started it all that one Monday night forty-four years ago this September.

Steve Cone, author of POWERLINES: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History

Comments

[mamacat]

It was not hard to believe that Goldwater might destroy the world. The man who endorsed "Extremism in the defence of liberty is not a vice......" helped start the neo-con movement, even if even he was shocked by how extremist and right-wing they became.
Goldwater himself helped to fuel concerns about his suitability for the presidency. One can overdo the use of fear and hatred in politics, and he crossed the line.
In many ways, he was a wonderful man. He just did not help people to trust in his ability to be stable in a crisis.

[pfc1369]

They told me if I voted for Goldwater the war in Vietnam would last for at least ten more years.

I voted for Goldwater, and sure enough, the war lasted for ten more years.

[CaseyBabes]

Senator Goldwater was one tough hombre and his language matched his demeanor. The various references to 'nuking' cited in this article were common from the man, yet, he was not only tough but very, very shrewd. Goldwater advocated military power, particularly the nuclear response capability of this nation. Importantly, and little known, was the senator's active monitoring/ participation in the forming of a "Fail Safe" precedure to prevent the accidental or deliberate launch of the nuclear force. Indeed, this somewhat tempers any discussion of Goldwater's willingness to use nukes. Oh, by the way, LBJ won the elction in a landslide and killed 55,000 troops, wounding twice that, in Vietnam.

[CaseyBabes]

.....procedure.....

[starboymikey]

Best negative ad on McCain I've seen so far was litany of Bush blunders, followed by a photograph of Bush and McCain together, with the old Nixon chant of "Four more years, for more years, for more years ... " I think it was one of MoveOn's ads, so I suppose you could call it a 527, though MoveOn is grass roots organization.

Tying McCain to Bush as closely as possible is probably the most powerful message the Obama campaign can put out there. In fact, it's almost the only type of negative ad they need to go with some positive messages outlining Obama's vision for a better America.

[rmwarnick]

The Daisy ad was pure evil. I didn't know it was the first-ever negative ad, or the first to be created by an ad agency. But that explains a lot. Our political discourse has suffered the consequences for 44 years now.

[mamacat]

The ad crystalised how people already felt about Goldwater, it did not cause them to feel that way.

[GHO]

Unfortunately, I don't think we can expect that level of sophistication in the upcoming campaign from either the religious right or the radical left. The 527s, or whatever we call these folks these days, will make nasty attack ads with any ammo provided. I foresee bleeding US soldiers juxtaposed against McCain pro-Iraq War sound bites and Obama soundbites about unity spliced in with bites from Jeremiah Wright. It's not gonna be pretty.

[bgregs]

See, that's the thing. Daisy wasn't really a negative ad. A negative ad is by definition about something that your opponent said which is taken out of context. I'm always drawn to the ones about how such and such candidate "raised taxes more than 100 times" or some such. Never mind that they count multiple votes on a single bill as separate, and that they count votes AGAINST a tax CUT as a tax RAISE!

[feo]

We also remember to never trust any politician. It was, after, not long after this ad that LBJ had us neck deep and sinking in Vietnam.

[RasAlula]

I disagree with this. While Goldwater may have been a loose canon, I don't think he was intent of starting a nuclear war that would destroy America. To juxtapose a little girl in a field with a nuclear bomb explosion does not seem "truthful" to me.

If we look at the current election, I would advise Obama to stay away from this and instead focus on real consequences of John McCain's views on Iraq: tanking economy, soldiers dying, Osama still free, turbulence in the mid-east, neglect of Afghanistan etc. I suppose he could have an add that shows little American children standing under a highway overpass as it collapses on them (as a metaphor for republican neglect of our infrastructure) but that sort of gives me the willies. I would rather Obama focus on driving home the important points intelligently and in a civilized manner, without appealing to base human instincts.

[RoloTomassi]

A great analysis, thanks. I do remember the Daisy ad, although I suspect it is from seeing it at a later date [I see the entire clip very clearly in my mind, but I can't imagine that it was from the original aring, as I was about five years old at the time].

I see some excellent opportunities for the Obama team, should they take the initiative to the low-key, symbolic approach. Healthcare, disaster relief, detainee torture and abuse, disabled vets, and the credit / foreclosure crisis all offer up dire examples of Americans suffering through the criminal Bush administration.

[CaseyBabes]

Umm, yeah, the healthcare issue only came up with the Bush Administration and of course the levees in Iowa and NOrleans only weakened upon the arrival of him (one attaboy to Nagin and his super effort). Ah yes, detainee and abuse.......damn, our guys got caught in the act of defending this country (one attaboy to your hero Murtha on his charge of marines slaughtering innocents at Haditha -- guess you love that guy). Rolo me boy, visit Walter Reed to actually see the care for disabled vets, if you ever get outta your cellar, that is. Credit/forclosures is it? Oh yeah, crime never existed before the Bush......................ho hum. Creep.