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Early Presidential Campaign Commercials
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Poltical conventions were first broadcast on television in 1948 but it wasn't until 1952 that presidential campaign commercials made their appearance on the tube. The first candidate to have his commercials on the air was Dwight D. Eisenhower. One of the first of these commercials was this "I Like Ike" animated commercial above produced by Roy Disney. Although it is rather crude by today's standards, it is catchy in a corny sort of way. Back then, jingles such as this one were quite big and the Eisenhower candidacy was sold on the air with the same repetitive techniques as toothpaste or detergent commercials.
The first attack ad could be attributed to this 1952 Adlai Stevenson commercial in which Eisenhower, and his former Republican party rival, Robert Taft, were romantically linked with strange sighing voices heard to repeat to each other, "Ike! Bob! Ike! Bob!" To stress the point, a couple of hearts with their names next to them were shown with Cupid's arrow going through them. Despite the fact this is an attack ad, it is quite hilarious due to the incredibly bizarre voices used and the fact that it uses perhaps the worst campaign song ever heard.
Political commercials didn't seem to improve much in quality four years later as you can see in this " Eisenhower Answers America" commercial with perhaps the worst case of acting on the part of a candidate. Come on, we might "Like Ike" but couldn't he have sounded a bit more authentic when saying, "Yes, my Mamie gets after me about the high cost of living."
The 1956 Stevenson commercial wasn't much better. Besides using the corny "Old McDonald Had A Farm" tune, it was hard to even understand the words.
Political commercials have evolved quite a bit from these efforts in the early days of television. However, the very corniness of the first crude campaign commercials make them very appealing in a campy sense. Oh, and I don't think Ike ever quite mastered the technique of method acting.
