campaign ads

Great Moments in Campaign Advertising: Confessions of a Republican

Often overshadowed by LBJ’s infamous “Daisy” ad, “Confessions of a Republican” is great mostly because it’s so weird. It’s also really long—four minutes and change. I haven’t been able to figure out when exactly it aired, or how really, because four-minute ad breaks aren’t particularly common even now (and TV commercial breaks have stretched drastically in recent years). In the ad, an actor (although the ad doesn’t say as much) talks about how he’s always been a Republican, but the party’s candidate that year, Sen. Goldwater, is too extreme for his comfort. Sure, this is mostly an artifact of the era during which party...

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Hell Bent for Election

So this is friggin’ cool. Above is an animated film directed by Chuck Jones that was basically a union-sponsored campaign ad for FDR. From the YouTube description: Hell-Bent For Election was a 1944 two-reel (thirteen minute) animated cartoon short subject now in the public domain. The short was one of the first major films from United Productions of America (then known as “Industrial Films”), which would go on to become the most influential animation studio of the 1950s. As UPA did not have a full staff or a studio location until the late-1940s, this film was made...

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We’re only 65% sure that Rep. Vance MacAllister’s wife is not being held hostage hashtag blessed

First, I want you to look at this: [there used to be an image here, but it has been eaten by internet rot] That’s U.S. soccer superstar Landon Donovan while appearing on ESPN during this summer’s World Cup. That’s also the face of a man that we’re pretty sure is being held hostage and is reading his captors’ demands. Now, we have another super creepy and weird political ad today (earlier). This one is from Louisiana Representative Vance MacAllister, who really, really wants to remind you that he and his wife a super-duper Christians hashtag blessed. You...

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Weird and creepy political ad is weird and creepy

Here’s a new gem for the archives in the annals of weird-ass political ads. In this one, titled “Dating Profile,” from Americans for Shared Prosperity (some Californian rich guy’s Super PAC) a sad love-worn woman is mad about her boyfriend president. Because the reason women voted for “Barack” was because they were “in love,” because he was “smart, handsome, charming articulate, all the right values.” Weird, though, because she knows she’s stuck with him for two more years (this analogy sure is holding up well), but she know she doesn’t have to hang out with his friends or something...

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