“the living room candidate”: 60 years of presidential campaign tv ads
10/06/12
— ads, education, election, history, president, television
the museum of the moving image created an excellent website called “living room candidate.” for every american presidential election year since 1952, the site shows a sampling of ads from each major nominee along with a state of the nation recap and background on the candidates. the site also offers special learning materials for teachers.
this is interesting on a few levels. for one, you can hear the political positions over the years from the candidates themselves like a pre-watergate nixon talking about corruption in washington (ha) and a young jfk sharing his views on the nation. the ads also let you witness the transformation of television from the use of cartoons, celeb endorsements, color (!), graphic war photos and the now oh-so-familiar stock family shots. you’ll also find some gems like an ad featuring 20 seconds of laughter and jackie o campaigning for her husband in spanish (see below; translation here).
check out the site and let me know what things stand out to you.
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