Scariest Political Commercial Ever
It ran only once 47 years ago, but a one-minute effort for LBJ’s 1964 reelection campaign was still being parsed this week at a college symposium as “the most negative political ad in American history.”
During the network airing of a Hollywood biblical epic back then, amid cheery product pitches, suddenly there was the image of a little girl pulling petals from a daisy and counting erratically, to be replaced by a nuclear countdown as the camera zoomed in on her eye, froze and cut to a mushroom cloud explosion with Lyndon Johnson intoning the warning that the election stakes are “we must love each other or die.”
The commercial played off Barry Goldwater’s defense of extremism and offhand suggestion about defoliating Vietnam with nuclear weapons but never mentioned his name. Yet the message was clear: Vote for LBJ or die.
It never ran again but didn’t have to. Coming two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, American voters were highly sensitive to the dangers of nuclear war and susceptible to the suggestion that a steady hand in the White House was crucial.
The campaign commercials are starting again now, and they doubtlessly will be tough and bitter, but there is no way to raise the stakes any higher.
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2 Responses to “Scariest Political Commercial Ever”
Mr. Stein I saw that commercial. I also have an article in an old LOOK magazine of Goldwater’s remarks about nuking Vietnam. Seems to pin Goldwater pretty good for me. Thing is though, nuclear war was very real and a constant threat held in the minds of all of us. We push the button, and, they will push theirs. Guess what….it’s still true today.
Now new enemies are building more nuclear weapons. You, me, and the United States government will NOT be able to tell these enemies how to treat their women or divide their wealth or treat with equality their varied ethnicities/religions and expect acquiescence from them. The best we can hope for will be in displaying and applying overwhelming deadly force if necessary. Having said that, I do not believe that we are by any means behind in any defense capabilities and I would not advocate for any increases in defense but rather cuts in defense. Now if our social liberals would lay off of government to force our social will upon other nations, I believe things will go a lot smoother. I believe less civil rights rhetoric, levied against other nations, will go a long way in preventing a terrorist nuclear blast within the United States.
Slander in the defense of liberalism and the Democratic party is no virtue, even if the foregoing believe it’s no vice.