Fifty years later, LBJ's 'Daisy' ad still stuns

Lamenting the tone of TV commercials, the executive director of the Fair Campaign Practices Committee called the fall campaign "the most vicious and bitter I've ever seen, or for that matter, heard tell of."

Based on what's seen on screens lately, this could be a depiction of the 2014 election. But Bruce L. Felknor's characterization of the campaign came half a century ago after an ad called "Peace, Little Girl" — now known as "Daisy" — was run by President Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign against his Republican rival, Sen. Barry Goldwater.

"Daisy" debuted 50 years ago on Sept. 7, 1964. The ad only ran once. But its impact endures. Not just because "Daisy" is considered by many practitioners to be the best political ad ever, but because it began an ever-intensifying era of negative campaign ads that give biannual credence to Felknor's critique.

"Daisy" starts with a 3-year-old girl in a meadow, innocently plucking petals as she counts (and cutely miscounts) up to 10. As she nears 10 in her toddler voice, a harsh, martial voice begins a reverse countdown. At zero, an extreme close-up of the girl's eye dissolves into a massive nuclear explosion.

Fifty years later, the visual is startling — even shocking. But just as jarring are the words.

LBJ is not seen, but heard in his unmistakable Texas twang. "These are the stakes," he warns. "To make a world in which all God's children can live, or go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." Then, a stentorian voice urges: "Vote for President Johnson on Nov. 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."

Yes, "vote for me or die" would be the ultimate stakes. Of course, many thought the black-and-white contrast was beyond the pale. And so after "Daisy" ran during NBC's screening of the biblical drama "David and Bathsheba," all hell broke loose. Complaints rained down on Democrats and NBC. And not just from rank-and-file Republicans. Many Democrats complained, too, including Hubert Humphrey, LBJ's running mate, who while not exactly running from it, called the ad "unfortunate."

"Daisy's" creativity and controversy made it instantly iconic. "It was groundbreaking," said Bill Hillsman, president of North Woods Advertising. Hillsman, the nationally noted creator of campaign ads for Paul Wellstone, Jesse Ventura and Ralph Nader, among many others, added that, "It was uniquely creative at a time when there weren't a lot of creative ads in politics or general advertising."

Maybe that's because the Johnson campaign chose to work with Doyle Dane Bernbach, which was at the vanguard of advertising's "creative revolution" later in the decade. In fact, it's notable that "Daisy" and an ad for President Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide called "Prouder, Stronger, Better" — the so-called "It's morning again in America" ad — are consistently considered the two best campaign ads ever. Both were from Madison Avenue, not the Beltway, where today's campaign-media industrial complex creates such uncreative political messaging.

But despite undeniable creativity, "Daisy" began, or at least intensified, a descent into negative campaigning that now defines the genre and defiles our democracy.

"The genie was out of the bottle," said Darrell M. West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. West, who literally wrote the book on presidential campaign ads ("Air Wars"), added that, "Once it was shown to be effective you had other politicians use the same technique."

The efficacy relied on context. It was during the depths of the Cold War, and the Cuban missile crisis was still a raw memory. "You could really put people on edge," West said.

In particular, "Daisy's" visual and audio elements clash. An image of innocence morphs into a mushroom cloud. A president simultaneously invokes love and death — reflective of a time when "speech crafting was at a very high level," said Hillsman.

Yet beyond the ad's execution and efficacy, perhaps most notable was the subject matter. Today's campaign ads are often about, well, campaign ads and tactics and other aspects of the meta-political environment, not about real issues that really matter. "Daisy" resonated because it meant something, which is something current campaigns should consider. They're unlikely to top "Daisy's" creativity, or match its controversy. But they can be more relevant, and thus more effective, than the banalities broadcast incessantly every other autumn.