Rhetorical Analysis Of Daisy Advertising

Presidential Campaign Advertisement: Daisy On September 7, 1964, President, Lyndon B. Johnson released a campaign advertisement that would, forever, change the use of political advertising: Daisy. Daisy is an advertisement of a little, blonde, white girl standing in a field of flowers. Birds chirp as she picked the petals from a delicate daisy. As she’s looking down at the daisy, a chilling voice counting down to ten. The little girl looks up as the camera zooms into her face. When the countdown hits zero, a nuclear bomb ignites, and Lyndon B. Johnson has a voice over, “These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.” The advertisement is followed by, “Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home” (Peopling the Past). The Daisy advertisement was remembered for its strong influence on the American people by using a visual image of a child being

The commercial stimulates the emotions of the America people. The advertisement gets to the feelings most people have for children. The innocence of children is usually a symbol of hope for the future. The commercial opens with a little girl that many would be considered cute. Daisy would grab the attention of parents and make the marketing relatable. A child being involved in a nuclear explosion builds on the emotion of fear and sadness. The most prevalent feeling at the time was fear. The Soviet Union and the United States were packing large nuclear weapons. The American people were in fear that a nuclear war would ignite. The explosion in the commercial highlights on that fear (“1964”). The American citizen was susceptible to believing anything that had any potential to be true. Due to all the events taking place within a short period, Johnson knew his audience of voters were the ones who feared change and nuclear