Political Persuasion Ethics: An Analysis of The Daisy Girl Ad

Often Advertising uses persuasion to inform the audience; in fact it is the most import aspect to advertising. Advertising would simply be a conversation between the communicator and their recipients if persuasion weren’t present. Although the basic purposes are to inform and persuade, it is left to the audience when it comes to differentiating between factual information and unethical persuasive tactics. The persuader, wishes for the consumer to act or believe in a certain way. Whether sought after actions are positive or negative, ends up being the question. In the modern world it has become more difficult to differentiate between truths and untruths; mainly due to the technological advances in advertising medium. Differentiating between facts and propaganda becomes increasingly more challenging when it comes to politics. Whether it is an election for student senate or the United States general election for Presidency; there are a lot of factors weighing in on the decision process. During an election year, persuasive tactics become essential in the success of a campaign. Although many voters have made up their minds when they are first bombarded by the political campaigning, these pre-developed opinions are not viewed as an impenetrable force by the campaigner. The campaigner typically recognizes these patterns in opinion and instead aims to persuade them from a different angle, most commonly the emotions surrounding the issues rather than the issues themselves. This paradigm changed in political persuasion was first seen September 7, 1964 when a rattling ad for Lynden Johnson played over NBC. The ad now known as “Daisy Girl” forever changed political persuasion in advertising. With this change came the issue of ethi...

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...ess enables the consumer to be an informative consumer at the voting booth.

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