The "Daisy Ad", 43 years later

[mdlbear]

CONELRAD | DAISY: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AN INFAMOUS AND ICONIC AD - PART ONEEvery election season when politicians unleash their expensive and (usually) unimaginative attack ads, op-ed writers invoke the unofficial title of the most notorious 60 seconds in advertising history: "The Daisy Ad" (official title: "Peace, Little Girl," aka "Daisy Girl," "The Daisy Spot, "aka "Little Girl - Countdown"). The spot features a little girl picking petals off of a daisy in a field and counting out of sequence just before an adult voiceover interjects a "military" countdown which is then followed by stock footage of a nuclear explosion and the cautionary words of President Lyndon B. Johnson: "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." The ad - which never identifies its target - was aimed at reinforcing the perception that the 1964 Republican candidate for president, Senator Barry M. Goldwater, could not be trusted with his finger on the button. Title screen from 'David and Bathsheba'As has often been recited, the Daisy ad aired only once as a paid advertisement - on NBC during the network movie (DAVID AND BATHSHEBA) on Monday, September 7, 1964. Since that long ago Labor Day, the film of the child and her daisies has been re-played millions of times.
(Via BoingBoing, of course.)

I've seen it. It was very effective.