TV Campaign Ad History in Four Acts

With the election on in Canada, the time seems ripe to look at seminal moments in the brief (just a half century!) history of TV campaign ads. 

1.  IN THE BEGINNING

TV campaign ads were born in the early 50's, when Republican nominee Dwight Eisenhower conscripted some high-end talent- including Disney animators, who incited people to (wait for it...) "get in step with the guy that's hep."



2.  THE DAWN OF NASTY

In 1960, Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy launched this ad, painted by some as the earliest ancestor of today's attack ads: 



2. VOTE LBJ, OR THE REDS WILL VAPORIZE THIS GIRL

Perhaps the most famous- or infamous campaign ad was "Daisy"- created in 1964 by the legendary agency Doyle Dane Bernbach.  Like another landmark TV ad (Apple's "1984) it only aired once.



4.  OL' DUTCH

When Ronald Reagan sought reelection in 1984, he dragooned such ad heavyweights as Phil Dusenberry and Hal Riney, whose unmistakable voice graces this spot:  "Morning Again in America."  With a strategy filed under "A" for "Ain't Broke- So Why Fix It."


5.  (BONUS ACT!)  THE NEW FACE OF NASTY

In 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush took the 'nasty' of the Kennedy attack ad of 1960, and set the tone for many of the attack ads that are only now seeping into Canadian politics.  The only ingredient missing is the inevitable low synthesizer drone:



THE NEXT STORY BEAT IN CAMPAIGN ADS

Bob Edwards

Humour.  I suspect that some time- in the near or distant future- someone will take an enormous risk and create genuinely funny campaign ads.

And in the spirit of Bob Edwards' observation "people will pay more to laugh than for any other privilege"- the campaign that commands laughs will run the table.

Putting the 'Ow' in 'Audi'

 

It is entirely appropriate that the ad business is rife with metaphors of war, and chess.

The Audi billboard on the left appeared along Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles not so long ago.  Soon after, the BMW folks retaliated, in a move recorded by its agency, Juggernaut Advertising, for whom this video is an ad in itself- boasting of Juggernaut's authorship of this 'nana-nana-boo-boo' moment:

BMW billboard from Juggernaut Advertising on Vimeo.

The Audio folks forgot that chess is about thinking a few moves head.  And they payed for it- literally. For the duration of their poster's run, they had to pay to play the foil to their arch rival. 

When the 'billboard war' ballyhoo'd and reported in some corners of the press never erupted, this incident was demoted to the status of 'one-off.'  

Advertising wars can in themselves draw all kinds of attention, and help grow the product category.  But they're also expensive, and bruising, and oh-so-hard to stop.

Hence the metaphor.

The Tale of Two Ads

Using Ad Clutter to Your Advantage

You may have come across this ad-  it too was honoured at Cannes in 2010.  If you'd be so good, I want you to look at it with one word in mind:

Pace.

When you see an ad like this- from YouTube, you can enjoy it as a self-contained entertainment.  But you probably don't imagine what the spot 'feels' like in the context of broadcast- running as part of a noisy pack of messages and promos within a commercial set.

I'll bet you a nickel that most of the ads that usually surrounded this one were comparatively fast-paced and frenetic, stuffed with quick cuts, graphics and audio-visual information, in the spirit of the "MTV Effect" Terry and I discuss in our book.

That's this ad's secret weapon.  It has such a simple brief:   promote the Young Director Award. That gives the spot room to breathe-  space to spin out a story.  In this case, without dialogue through most of it- which in itself catches an audience's attention; ads are typically so busy, so noisy, and so verbose, that non-dialogue grabs the viewer by the ear.

And what a great moment it all leads to. 

In context this is a relatively quiet, deliberate, intelligent few moments of great storytelling, framed on either end- and I've got a nickel riding on this- by manic, loud, caffeinated sales pitches.