Political Advertising In The Early 1950's

Campaigning is political for political advertising by candidates where the net effect is to boost the relative appeal of commercials. Thus, exposure to political campaigns with the first one being in the early 1950’s, where everything seemed to be “booming” – the economy, suburbs, and babies being born and all this seemed to provide a sense of stability and contentment. Soon after, the sixties came and things started to change. People did not want to live the “conservative” lifestyles that the fifties provided, instead they wanted change that affected the laws, values, education, and entertainment. This era remains varied considering it brought things such as resentment, empowerment, liberation, and polarization. Meanwhile, we fast forward
to the twenty-first century to the year 2012 where Americans saw high unemployment rates, unsustainable deficit, low wages, and healthcare costs. Nonetheless, this is a stark contrast from the fifties and sixties where there was strong economic growth due to high taxes. In this paper, candidates of different election years will be discussed and how television and the internet played an important role in reaching voters as well as their take on each other during these times. To begin, the candidates of the 1952 election were Dwight Eisenhower who served as the Republican nominee and Adlai Stevenson who served as the Democratic nominee. Stevenson never portrayed himself in any of his commercials and therefore could not connect with the American people on a deeper level. Next, his commercials consisted of cartoons and encouraged the greater use of advertising in general with negative advertising. If elected, Stevenson would not be there for the people to lead in a time when peace was much needed for the country. Meanwhile, Eisenhower was in commercials answering questions of everyday Americans about the issues that plagued them and spoke to them from the heart. His commercials only lasted around 20 seconds but were effective in getting his point across considering he extensively took advantage of making the commercials a question and answer type of forum. Eisenhower was from Kansas and having fought in the war he knew what was required to be the next leader of the free world. The ads of 1952 were not as negative as we saw in this recent campaign partly because they were about real issues that affected real people and not who could out slander the other on a larger scale with insults. Based on these facts, Eisenhower was triumphant in defeating Stevenson in the election. By the time 1960 rolled around, two new candidates had decided to run for president of the United States. They were Richard Nixon who became the Republican candidate and John F. Kennedy who became the Democratic candidate. At first, Kennedy’s commercials were used to reach the various communities in the United States until his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, began reaching out to the Hispanic community by making a Spanish commercial reiterating what her husband planned to do as president. More importantly, since Kennedy was Catholic, he made it a priority to have the church and state remain separate entities and uphold his oath while in office. On the other hand, Nixon used his experience to inform the American people he already knew what to do for them. Compared to Kennedy, Nixon never went out to talk to the people about the issues that mattered instead he would sit in a conventional setting during his commercials relaying to voters the issues which always seemed to relate back to Communism. In his commercials, he was not overly personable but came across as oppressive whereas Kennedy showed a much more relatable side with his demeanor and convictions on how he would run the country. The issues that arose during this election were civil rights, the economy, foreign policy, and cost of living which affected hundreds of people daily. However, during the election Nixon never ran ads that attacked Kennedy or his character yet Kennedy ran two commercials that became futile against Nixon and probably cost him the election since he lost. Next, came the elections of 1964 where the candidates were Barry Goldwater who was a Republican and Lyndon B.
Johnson who was a Democrat. During this election, the claws came out and the American people got their first taste of negative campaign ads. Each candidate decided to run malicious advertisements against each other even after Johnson became president after Kennedy’s assassination. His ads portrayed him as a hard-working man who would continue if re-elected. They were more focused on bashing Goldwater than portraying himself as a leader. Subsequently, Goldwater followed suit and ran negative ads against Johnson trying to portray him as a weak leader and that America was desperate for a change. Issues that arose were Kennedy’s unexpected murder, Social Security, Medicare, and how the American people preferred peach instead of going to war are why Johnson won the election. The ads under review in this election gave us a taste of negative campaigning for the first time yet not nearly as nasty as more current campaign ads in recent
years. As we move forward to 1968, Democratic Hubert Humphrey and Republican Richard Nixon who was going to try again to run as president had another candidate to run against this election as the nation saw third party Independent George Wallace, from Alabama, try his hand at being president. In Nixon’s campaign ads, he used pictures of violence across America and in Vietnam to tug at the heartstrings of the American people in different demographics. Next, Humphrey used his personality of being strong and compassionate to try and persuade the voters. He did not focus on the war like his opponent but criticized Nixon for not unveiling his plan which was considered hypocritical to the American people. In addition, Independent George Wallace ran campaign ads to try and connect with voters but fell short because his ads lacked any emotion and he came off as untrustworthy. Each ad placed Wallace in front of a podium where he spoke to the people about his plans if he became president but they had a monotonous tone to them which did not impress voters. When all was said and done, Nixon had become the next president of the United States. The ads portrayed during this election year were not as negative as the election in 1964 or like the current campaign.
These ads were more like who could out do the other better with their promises. Last of all, we fast forward forty-four years to the election of 2012 between Republican Mitt Romney, who was the first Mormon and Democrat Barack Obama, who was also the first African American president running for a second term. The campaign ads that Obama ran were to show the American people how Romney, if elected, would ship jobs here in the United States overseas since he was a business man first and how he would hurt the country. Also, for the first time in an election year, Obama used the internet to reach the younger generation to garner more votes. Meanwhile, Romney ran ads that showed how the economy was failing because Obama was not moving as swiftly as he said he would to fix it and some showed the president ignoring the middle class. These ads were unprecedented because such negativity was never seen before during a presidential campaign were both parties featured ads trying to destroy the other and their reputations. The issues that plagued this election were the economy, high unemployment rates, and how Americans were starting to lose trust in their
government. This election year became the year of “the lesser of two evils” because both candidates were constantly attacking one another instead of who would lead the country and put the needs of the people first. Yet, on November 8, 2012 the American people had spoken when Obama became president again. These ads were like the current campaign ads of the recent election between Trump and Clinton. One candidate attacking the other forgetting that it is not about them but the people and such negativity can be a major turnoff to some voters causing them not to vote at all. All things considered, whomever decides to run for president in the next election actually reviews past campaign ads and find out what the American people dislike in order to find better solutions to the problems plaguing the United States.