Summary Of The 1972 President Nixon Campaign

Anna Collignon
Dr. Tim Newman
Political Science 1110
31 October 2014
Campaign Advertisement Analysis

The campaign year was 1972 President Nixon vs McGovern. The advertisement that was used in the Nixon campaign was entitled “Nixon the Man” and it was mainly about eroding Nixon’s negative image as cold and humorless to make him more pleasing to the public. The advertisement did this by showing him joking around in the white house and playing the piano and dancing with his daughter at her wedding. An issue that was presented was to lower property taxes and not putting more money into the pockets of elected officials. Another issue that was presented was the value of the relationship between Latin American community and the United States. The advertisement overall contained a positive image and it did not slander his opponent. The ad did have a celebrity the Duke of Ellington and there were no children in the ad. The ad only slightly alluded to the importance of race when it featured Nixon talking about how he valued the Latin Americans relationship as much if not more than that of the Europeans. Overall the ad was respectful and did not
underestimate intelligence because the ad had a sole focusing on Nixon promoting himself rather than him dumbing down the issues or him blatantly attacking his opponent. The McGovern ad of 1972 was called the Convention.
This ad was about presenting McGovern as a man who cared about the people and was for the people. This approach was accomplished through the use of informal interviews that asked people to describe how included they felt in McGovern’s election process. The only issue that was brought up by McGovern was the issue about campaign funding stating that his Republican candidate uses the wealthy elites who expect favors to cover the cost of his campaign where as he uses the small but numerous contributions from the middle class majority to try to change the future. This ad had an overall pleasant attitude however, it was kind of pointed at targeting his opponent. There were no children or celebrities used in the ad and the overall intelligence of the audience was not
underestimated. The Obama ad of 2008 called the Country I Love was about the story of how Barack Obama overcame many hardships in his life including growing up with little money and being raised by a single mother. The ad really employed the all American boy theme talking about how much he loves the country and talking about being raised with heartland values. The ad did make reference to his overall campaign message about change by bringing up several controversial issues such as welfare to work, cutting taxes, and extending veteran benefits. The ad overall had a positive message it did not use any children or celebrities. The ad was not an attack and did not underestimate the intelligence of the viewers. The McCain ad of 2008 called the Man in the Arena was about employing the use of patriotism saying that he was not running for president out of a sense of entitlement but out of a sense of duty. McCain used his background as a soldier to present the argument that he would fight for the values and traditions of this country to make America better. This ad had an overall pleasant mood. However, the use of children in this ad when he was talking about restoring peace to this country was just so obvious it seemed to underestimate the audience’s intelligence. The ad also used the image of America’s previous present Teddy Roosevelt. This ad contained no slander toward his Democrat opponent. The 2010 midterm race between Reid Democrat and Angle Republican featured an ad by Republican Angle about Reid’s views on immigration. This ad was a negative ad portraying Reid as being in favor of illegals over the interest of the American people. In addition to the ad stating all the benefits that Reid wants to throw at the illegals in this country with most of these benefits being things the average American has trouble affording such as college tuition and medical care. This ad did not use the images of children or celebrities. This video may have slightly underestimated the people’s intelligence but not in an excessive way. The gubernatorial campaign of Steve Poizner was a very pointed attack toward the Californian Democrats about how messed up that state actually is. And how he is there to protect the people’s liberties when California’s current government is not doing that because there current officials are too concerned with letting all the illegals in to take jobs and benefits. The mood of this campaign was an angry one Steve Poizner was up in arms against the current official’s current policies. There were no children or celebrities used in this ad and the overall intelligence was not underestimated.