The Living Room Candidate
Given the dismal sniping and insulting distortions characteristic of most political TV ads, it's perhaps hard to imagine why a person would want to watch more of them, voluntarily. But taken together, and abstracted from their immediate context, they actually form a surprisingly entertaining genre -- especially when we can view them at our pleasure, rather than gritting our teeth or simply leaving the room while we wait for The Game to come back on.
They can also reveal more than they were originally intended to. That seems to be the premise behind "The Living Room Candidate," a project of the American Museum of the Moving Image, which has collected more than 250 presidential campaign commercials, dating from 1952 all the way through 2004, and made them available online. Taken together, they form a pretty good picture of the political soul of the country for the last half-century -- or at least of how presidential campaigns have imagined that soul.
Watch Eisenhower's wholesome "The Man from Abilene," aired during his 1952 campaign against Adlai Stevenson. Watch Lyndon Johnson's supremely potent "Daisy" ad from 1962, from which Barry Goldwater never recovered. Watch a helmeted Michael Dukakis roll around in a tank as if he were in league with the George Bush, Sr., communications team. Watch as many as you want!
In addition to the TV clips themselves, "The Living Room Candidate" provides historical overviews of each campaign, information on modern political advertising on the Web, and good searchability.
And if you burn out on politics, the American Museum of the Moving Image has created other online exhibitions, including:
"Pinewood Dialogues Online" -- "in-depth conversations with innovative and influential creative figures in film, television, and digital media."
"Computer Space" -- "provides a tour of some of the classic video arcade games in the Museum's collection. The exhibition includes information on the history of the games, and provides links to downloadable versions of some of the games discussed."
"Shutters, Sprockets, and Tubes" -- "six animated interactive tutorials that explain the science and technology behind movies and television."
All in all, a good site. Check it out.
They can also reveal more than they were originally intended to. That seems to be the premise behind "The Living Room Candidate," a project of the American Museum of the Moving Image, which has collected more than 250 presidential campaign commercials, dating from 1952 all the way through 2004, and made them available online. Taken together, they form a pretty good picture of the political soul of the country for the last half-century -- or at least of how presidential campaigns have imagined that soul.
Watch Eisenhower's wholesome "The Man from Abilene," aired during his 1952 campaign against Adlai Stevenson. Watch Lyndon Johnson's supremely potent "Daisy" ad from 1962, from which Barry Goldwater never recovered. Watch a helmeted Michael Dukakis roll around in a tank as if he were in league with the George Bush, Sr., communications team. Watch as many as you want!
In addition to the TV clips themselves, "The Living Room Candidate" provides historical overviews of each campaign, information on modern political advertising on the Web, and good searchability.
And if you burn out on politics, the American Museum of the Moving Image has created other online exhibitions, including:
"Pinewood Dialogues Online" -- "in-depth conversations with innovative and influential creative figures in film, television, and digital media."
"Computer Space" -- "provides a tour of some of the classic video arcade games in the Museum's collection. The exhibition includes information on the history of the games, and provides links to downloadable versions of some of the games discussed."
"Shutters, Sprockets, and Tubes" -- "six animated interactive tutorials that explain the science and technology behind movies and television."
All in all, a good site. Check it out.
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 9:58 AM
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