Majority votes "Nix" for McGovern

Poor George McGovern’s positive and informal 1972 campaign never stood a chance against the media icon that is Richard Nixon.

Having won the previous election and already spent a term in office, Nixon had already created a media image for himself. Unfortunately, the image that Nixon had created was not going to be sufficient to win the election, and the Republican Party took the liberty of changing his image to more of an “everyman”. Advertisements took insights into Nixon’s life and relationships with various people, and painted him as a more friendly and fun-loving guy. By doing this, the voters found themselves able to better relate to Nixon and felt more comfortable having him run their country despite his previous broken promises and failures. (See “Nixon the Man”)

The Republican Party was not the only one to use positive advertising to persuade the public to vote for their political leader. The Democrats did the same for McGovern, though to a far less successful end. In his advertisements, McGovern spent much of his time with the people of the United States and making him appear to be one of them. The advertisements did not use the same sort of catchphrases as the Republican opponents, and unfortunately, it made the Democrats fall short and seem incredibly dull. None of the advertisements appeared to be particularly convincing. (See “Young Vets”)

While Nixon used positive ads to change the country’s view of him, a lot of the most successful advertisements criticised McGovern, thus keeping Nixon in a more positive light. Such negative ads used a lot of strategies that hit the Democrats hard and thrust the Republicans into the hearts of the American public. (See “McGovern Defense”)

McGovern’s anti-Nixon advertisements didn’t hit until too late in the campaign. The country had already been convinced that Nixon’s character was not only better, but he had more knowledge concerning politics and the economy of the United States. It is possible that the Democrats could have been successful, had they been on the attack. Unfortunately, their strategy was not nearly as successful as the Republicans’, thus ensuring that Richard Nixon won the election for the second term running. (See “Voting Booth”)

Both parties had a targeted demographic, and again, the Republican party blew the Democrats out of the water. In the ad “Nixon the Man”, Nixon was seen having a good time with various races of people of different social classes and genders. This gave appeal to much of the United States, as everyone felt included. McGovern worked in an entirely different manner, by addressing various groups of people specifically in separate advertisements. While he still addressed everyone, he seemingly placed people on different levels because they were not shown as one. The isolation of various communities really took its toll on McGovern’s political campaign, and allowed Nixon to once again slide in for a win.

In conclusion, the advertising campaign given by the Republican Party was clearly more effective than that of the Democrat Party. While Nixon was involved in scandal and his public image was questionable, his advertising team did a far better job than that of McGovern in ensuring that he become leader of the United States.