John Buckley Quotes
There is no longer a value judgement on the need to tailor a message to television. It's now a matter of survival, not a matter of ethics or intellectual honesty.
John Buckley, Communications Director, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Press secretary to Congressman Jack Kemp (Republican, NY) during the 1988 presidential race, Quoted in New York Times, October 2, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Television was a new campaign technique and the Democrats had been trying to broadcast entire Stevenson speeches. But the cost was very high and the Republicans who more quickly embraced the new political tool had been producing and running short 30 second and 1 minute advertisement “spots.” This was to the intellectuals of the day a very ethically questionable practice as it resembled advertising and marketing of consumer products. Ball in this quotation told the staff that in order to compete in the then new campaign world of television, the Democrats too would have to use “spots”—political TV advertisements. From this campaign onward, television would become the dominant political communications medium and “spots” became not only acceptable but became the dominant TV technique and the telecasting of entire speeches of the candidates would no longer be broadcast. See candidate Stephenson’s remark about the subject: #
This was the first time that an American President was “sold’ to the voters in the same way that consumer goods were marketed to the public. Within 20 year, all presidential campaigns have been used these merchandising techniques.
Ailes, who was a very effective campaign consultant, always tried to define his own candidate and the opponent in a simplistic cartoon story line that did not require much effort to understand and had his candidate characterized as the hero and the opponent, as the villain. By definition any ad that showed the opponent as a villain was a negative add the creation of which Ailes was a master.
