Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2020

[W. Niederhut]

I can't recall whether someone has already posted this archival Americana here at the Education Forum.

If so, apologies in advance.

It's a hoot and, after Tuesday's debate, we could all use some comic relief.  🤪

(I was trying to link to the second JFK commercial in the 1960 archives.  You have to click on the commercial.)

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1960

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by W. Niederhut

[Ron Bulman]

I think some of this was posted four years ago.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=1960+presidential+campaign+commercials&docid=608040650700098326&mid=274ACF2CE64A73733C99274ACF2CE64A73733C99&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

[Pete Mellor]

Richard Nixon:- "I was there on the morning when the decision on Lebanon was made.  I was there when Trieste was decided.  I was there when the decisions on Iran, all these others that have kept the peace and kept it without surrender, and, my friends, this I know-that America at this time cannot afford to use the White House as a training ground to give experience to somebody at the expense of the United States of America."

John F. Kennedy:- "What Mr Nixon doesn't understand is that the President of the United States, Mr Eisenhower, is not the candidate.  You've seen those elephants in the circus, with ivory in their heads-you know how they travel around the circus, by grabbing the tail of the elephant in front of them.  That was all right in 1952 and in 1956.  Mr Nixon hung on tight; but now Mr Nixon meets the people.  The choice is not President Eisenhower; the choice is whether the people of this country want the leadership of Mr Nixon and the Republican party, a party that's never stood for progress.  To show how desperate and despicable this campaign has become: they're hanging, outside defense plants, a poster which says 'Jack Kennedy is after your job.'  I'm after Mr Eisenhower's job."

Robert Kennedy:- "I think that the most important part of the campaign was the debates, and, I think, the first debate particularly.  President Kennedy spent two days preparing for it.  He went over questions and possible answers and over his opening statement.  Nixon had built up, during the campaign, the idea that he was the only one who could stand up to Khrushchev, that a man of maturity was needed.  That first debate indicated that not only could John Kennedy stand up to Nixon, he could better him, and so it destroyed the whole basis of Mr Nixon's campaign in one night.  I think that was extremely important also in giving President Kennedy exposure to 70 million Americans, which he could never have received otherwise."

Quotes from 'John Fitzgerald Kennedy....As We Remember Him'   (1966)

[Ron Bulman]

Not commercials but slogans.  I chuckled out loud at number 6.

https://www.rd.com/list/funniest-presidential-campaign-slogans/