There was a time in the modern history of the United States, starting in the early 1930s, where Presidential campaign ads were designed to make a candidate look better to the citizens of the country. What has happened in recent years is that the advertisements attack the candidate’s opponent to make a particular candidate look more appealing. With the rise of the internet, one could make the argument that campaign ads are less important now than they have ever been because most Americans have access to a computer, which lets them absorb an almost endless barrage of information about any Presidential candidate. The problem comes from how ads work compared to a traditional article. An ad is designed to prey on the emotions of the viewer, who …show more content…
The United States faced the worst depressions in its history under President Hoover, though he should not take on the mantle of blame. Despite that, a large portion of nation viewed him as the reason for the Great Depression, and his political opponents in the following election used this to their advantage. Franklin Roosevelt, who would win the 1932 Presidential Election, promised the American people that with his help, the country would move forward out of the Great Depression. Of course, it would be crazy for any candidate to do anything but give hope to the country. A flyer Roosevelt’s team had created for him to use during the campaign proclaimed “We Need Action!” in big, bold letters beneath him. This portrayed the citizens, who were already well aware of the hardships the country was facing, that Roosevelt was the man to fix it. Roosevelt would go on to become the Democratic Presidential Nominee, and he arrived to accept that honor with the cheerful song “Happy Days Are Here Again” playing in the background, which made voters associate him with the idea that America’s future would be better off in Roosevelt’s hands than Hoover’s (Suddath, …show more content…
Rather than just hearing a voice, viewers could, in the case of presidential addresses, look into the eyes of the President. Since television was still new at the time, the ability to look at the President while he was speaking to the country made people feel like he was talking directly to them, even more so than with radios. According to the Digital Public Library of America, “By 1955, half of American homes had a TV set in their homes.” (“Golden Age of Radio”, n.d.). In 1952, President Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first President to utilize what most people associate with a campaign ad; a thirty-second television spot in-between shows (Brownell, 2016). Previously, candidates had purchased blocks of television airtime late at night in order to have the time required to properly articulate all of their thoughts on policy to American citizens, but it was Eisenhower who first created a televised commercial for his campaign (Brownell, 2016). Moving forward, every President would speak to Americans live on television, and candidates would buy small pockets of airtime between shows to promote themselves and their