Daisy (television commercial)
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Daisy, sometimes known as Daisy Girl, is perhaps the most famous campaign commercial of all time. Though it aired only once, it was a factor in Lyndon Johnson's defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, and an important turning point in political and advertising history.
The commercial begins with a small girl picking the petals of a daisy while counting slowly. An ominous-sounding male voice is then heard counting down as the girl turns toward the camera, which zooms in until her pupil fills the screen, blacking it out. Then the countdown reaches zero and the blackness is replaced by the flash and mushroom cloud from a nuclear test. A voiceover from Johnson follows: "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." Another voiceover then says, "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."
As soon as the ad aired, Johnson's campaign was widely criticized for using the prospect of nuclear war to frighten voters, and for the obvious implication that Goldwater would start one. The ad was immediately pulled, but the point was made, and a new era in campaign advertising had begun.
It was later used in the year 2000 music video for Fatboy Slim's "Sunset (Bird Of Prey)".
External link
- Video of the ad, from the PBS website (http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/timeline/years/1964b.html)