U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s controversial ‘Daisy’ ad airs once, sparks political outcry 60 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Sep 7 1964)

1960s, U.S. Presidents


Video: '"Daisy" Ad (1964): Preserved from 35mm in the Tony Schwartz Collection'

(Monday, September 7, 1964, 9:50 p.m. EDT; during the 1964 United States presidential election campaign) — The “Daisy” ad, one of the most controversial political advertisements in American presidential campaign history, aired for the first and only time tonight during NBC’s broadcast of the 1951 film David and Bathsheba.

This one-minute spot marked the official start of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign for a full term.

The ad began with a young girl counting daisy petals. As she reached nine, a voiceover initiated a countdown from ten. At zero, the image of the girl faded, replaced by a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion.

Video: 'PBS - American Experience - LBJ (1991) 2of4' ('Daisy' commercial at 49:17)

President Johnson’s voice then delivered a stark warning: “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.”

Dean Burch, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, vehemently criticized the ad, stating, “The only innuendo that can be drawn is that President Johnson is a careful man and that Barry Goldwater is careless and reckless. It is libel per se. It is a violent political lie. It implies that Goldwater is toying with the American people.”


Video: 'Vietnam Documentary: LBJ Goes to War' ('Daisy' commercial at 19:13)

By the end of the week, U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen lodged a formal complaint with the National Association of Broadcasters, arguing that the commercial “is in violation of your widely-heralded code of ethics” and called for sanctions against broadcasters who aired it.

Reflecting on the ad 50 years later, one author noted that “it could be argued that today’s gotcha culture, using innuendo-based TV attack ads, began with this ad.”

Another commentator remarked, “The year 1964 witnessed the fusion of political strategy and political advertising, and every subsequent race has relied on essentially the same model.”