Robert T. Mann - Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater, and the Ad That Changed American Politics

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DAISY PETALS and MUSHROOM CLOUDS

DAISY PETALS and MUSHROOM CLOUDS

LBJ,
Barry Goldwater,
and the Ad
That Changed
American Politics

ROBERT MANN

Published by Louisiana State University Press

Copyright 2011 by Robert Mann

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing

Designer: Laura Roubique Gleason

Typefaces: Whitman, text; Helvetica Neue, display

Printer: McNaughton & Gunn

Binder: Acme Bookbinding

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mann, Robert, 1958

Daisy petals and mushroom clouds : LBJ, Barry Goldwater, and the

ad that changed American politics / Robert Mann.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8071-4293-6 (cloth: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8071-4295-0 (pdf)

ISBN 978-0-8071-4296-7 (epub) ISBN 978-0-8071-4297-4 (mobi)

1. PresidentsUnited StatesElection1964. 2. Advertising, PoliticalUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 19081973. 4. Goldwater, Barry M. (Barry Morris), 19091998. I. Title.

E850.M28 2011

324.730973dc22

2011016093

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

In memory of Senator Russell B. Long

The truth

seems to be that propaganda
on its own cannot force its way into unwilling
minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can
it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It
penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill
opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the
minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil
ideas and passions already simmering in the minds
of his hearers. He echoes their
innermost
feelings. Where
opinion is not coerced,
people can be
made to believe
only in what they
already know.

Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on
the Nature of Mass Movements

CONTENTS

Photographs follow page 46.

FOREWORD

After November 22, 1963, the outcome of the next U.S. presidential election was, most historians agree, a foregone conclusion. Americans still mourning the violent loss of their charismatic young leader, John F. Kennedy, were not about to depose the man who had succeeded him. But incumbent Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson desired something more than a mere victory in 1964he wanted a historic mandate to make the presidency his own. The Johnson campaigns decision to select an innovative, boundary-testing advertising agency to help achieve this landslide transformed American politics.

Today, the 1964 election is remembered, if at all, for a single sixty-second campaign spot featuring an innocent little girl, picking petals from a daisy, who is then engulfed by a mushroom cloud. The message was that a vote for Johnsons unnamed opponent was a vote for nuclear annihilation. It was the first ad aired in the general election, and it generated a lot of attention, though not as much attention as some historians might lead you to believe. Over time, however, the Daisy spots legend has grown, and its brand on the 1964 election is now permanent and overpowering. Indeed, whenever a documentary on the 1960s is produced, the race between President Johnson and the Republican nominee, Arizona senator Barry M. Goldwater, is usually reduced to an excerpt from this commercial.

But the campaign was about more than just a little girl, some daisies, and a nuclear explosion. The Daisy spot was simply the most powerful symbol of a new era of politics. Whether Johnsons people knew it or not, the choice to use the New York advertising agency of Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) ushered in the modern age of the presidential campaign. The year 1964 witnessed the fusion of political strategy and political advertising, and every subsequent race has relied on essentially the same model. In partnership with Democratic strategists and using Goldwaters own words, DDB executed crippling blows to the Republican candidates standing. The advertising served as a crucial vehicle for reinforcing the public perception that the senator was unfit for national office.

The influence of DDBs pioneering efforts from 1964 is still very much in evidence. Hillary Clintons 3 a.m. Call from the 2008 primary season, for example, can be directly traced back to DDBs Telephone Hotline spot from its work for Lyndon Johnson. And there have been too many Daisy ad tributes to count.

For this book, journalist and historian Robert Mann has corralled an unprecedented wealth of archival materials and fresh interviews to provide a comprehensive picture of the often-dismissed election of 1964. He has organized the essential facts of the campaign into a concise work that is overwhelmingly persuasive in all of its conclusions. Best of all, Mann has captured the urgency and concern of what many people at the time considered to be a life-and-death vote. As hard as it may be to fathom now, the possibility of a Goldwater presidency was seen as a genuine risk to the planet at the time.

To put the stakes of the 1964 contest into a more easily understood contemporary perspective, it is necessary to consider what might happen if former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palinor someone like hercaptured the GOP nomination for the presidency. If you think this is an outlandish scenario, dont forget that it was the same kind of narrow movement support that Palin enjoys now that allowed Goldwater to stage a stunning upset over eastern establishment Republicans in 1964. Just as a majority of Americans took the prospect of an improbable Goldwater victory seriously in 1964, voters would no doubt express similar anxiety over a potential Palin residency in the White House. The advertising strategy employed by the Democrats against Palin would likely bear more than a passing resemblance to the techniques used by DDB to highlight the danger and unpredictability of Goldwater. There might even be another Daisy ad.

The Johnson-Goldwater matchup has, of course, been written about many times beforeoften by campaign or administration insiders with not-so-hidden agendas. Such is not the case here. Mann brings to his book a refreshingly objective approach along with the aforementioned surplus of research and original reporting. If Theodore H. Whites The Making of the President, 1964 was the first, somewhat biased, draft of the history of this contest, Manns work may very well be the last and the most fair. The foregoing statement may sound like hyperbole, but as someone who has studied and written about the 1964 election over a number of years, I can assure you that it is not.

The facts Mann has derived from contemporaneous media coverage, historical government documents, polling data, and current interviews are nothing short of breathtaking. But it is his distillation and presentation of this mountain of evidence into a focused narrative that are the real achievement. For every conclusion that the author makes and for every insight he offers, there is detailed, cited support. However, what you are about to read is not just a dry recitation of facts. As a journalist, Robert Mann knows what is of compelling interest to readers: the hot and cold moods of LBJ, the flailing of Goldwater, the clever strategizing (including surprising accounts of instances where Johnsons advisers knew when to exercise restraint), the creative intensity and occasional frustrations of the DDB team, the media treatment of the candidates, and, most important, the legacy of the campaign. Every angle, including the enduring debate over the true authorship of the Daisy ad, is woven into the pages of this compact book.

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