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"Ike for President"
The "Ike for President" advertisement, runtime – 60 seconds
ClientCitizens for Eisenhower committee
Running time60 seconds
Release date(s)1952
Production
company		The Walt Disney Company
Produced byRoy O. Disney
CountryUnited States

"Ike for President", sometimes referred to as "We'll Take Ike" or "I Like Ike", was a political advertisement that aired on television as part of Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign.

In 1952, Eisenhower decided to contest the presidency as a Republican. He was nominated as their presidential candidate and was challenged by Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Jacqueline Cochran, a pilot and Eisenhower campaign aide coordinated with Roy O. Disney of The Walt Disney Company to create a minute-long animated advertisement. The work for the advertisement was done by Disney's unpaid volunteers. The advertisement began with a bouncing Ike campaign button. Subsequently, Uncle Sam, dressed as a drum major leads a parade of a circus elephant, followed by various people of different occupations. The advertisement mocks John Sparkman, Dean Acheson, and President Harry S. Truman as Democratic donkeys. In the end, the narrator says: "Now is the time for all good Americans to come to the aid of their country."[1]

The advertisement used the technique of name repetition to produce a catchy jingle. Author Thomas A. Hollihan asserted that the main purpose of the advertisement was to win name recognition. Paul Christiansen considered the final line by the narrator as a "party-transcending appeal to voters".[1] The advertisement was broadcast in targeted areas four to six times in the final two weeks of the campaign. Eisenhower won the election in a landslide, businessman Stanley M. Rumbough Jr. writes that of the 40 states where the advertisement was broadcast, Eisenhower won all except Kentucky. Time ranked "Ike for President" eighth in its top-ten list of campaign advertisements.

Background

A portrait of a mostly-bald Dwight D. Eisenhower in uniform looking directly at the camera
A 1945 portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Further information: Draft Eisenhower movement

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.[2] He directed the 1944 Normandy invasion and the subsequent Allied invasion of Germany and rose to the position of five-star general.[3] During his term as the commander, he was hailed a war hero and often led the list of Gallup Poll's "most admired man".[4] He served as the Chief of Staff of the Army from 1945 to 1948.[5]

In 1948, despite being asked repeatedly by various organizations and prominent politicians, Eisenhower rejected all requests to enter politics.[6] He asserted that it was harmful to the army and him as the Chief of Staff to enter politics.[7] In 1952, however, according to author William B. Pickett, Eisenhower moved closer to partisan Republican politics.[8] Various Eisenhower supporters coined the phrase "I Like Ike", referring to Eisenhower's nickname: "Ike".[9] Irving Berlin included a song titled "They Like Ike" in his Broadway musical Call Me Madam.[10] Various newspaper editors endorsed Eisenhower's candidacy;[11] politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties announced their support for Eisenhower.[12] After winning the Republican New Hampshire[13] and Minnesota presidential primary,[14] Eisenhower decided to contest the presidency as a Republican. The Republican National Convention nominated him, with Senator Richard Nixon as his running mate, as the official presidential ticket in July 1952.[15] He was challenged by Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson.[16]

Creation

A portrait of standing Jacqueline Cochran in uniform looking directly at the camera
A 1943 portrait of Jacqueline Cochran

By 1952, around 40% of Americans owned a television.[17] In his 1990 article "Television's First Political Spot Ad Campaign: Eisenhower Answers America", author Stephen C. Wood wrote that the 1952 presidential campaign was the first in history to "render political television strategically viable".[18] Total media expenditure for the 1952 presidential election ranged from $2 million to over $6 million (equivalent to approximately 22,900,000 to 68,800,000 in 2020).[18] The Eisenhower campaign spent mostly on their advertising campaign named "Eisenhower Answers America".[19] BBDO was responsible for handling most of Eisenhower's campaign advertisements.[20]

On September 30, 1952, Jacqueline Cochran,[21] a pilot, cosmetic business executive, and a campaign aide of Eisenhower[22] wrote a letter to Roy O. Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, saying that she discussed with John Hay "Jock" Whitney about a proposed advertisement which could be "the greatest piece of propaganda in [that] whole campaign".[21] Her husband, Floyd Odlum, was a director of the Disney corporation.[23] Two days later, she wrote another letter to George L. Carlson, informing him about the animated cartoon called "We Like Ike". She referred to the advertisement as the "most extraordinary one minute short", and told that various people including Paul G. Hoffman and Paul Helms were impressed by the idea. Helm had donated $1,000 (equivalent to $11,500 in 2023) for the advertisement, which wasdeposited in an account handled by Carlson. Cochran requested Carlson to pay the amount to the Walt Disney organization.[24]

As Disney was a union shop, its work rules prohibited any partisan political activity. Subsequently, the work for the advertisement was done by unpaid volunteers outside of working hours.[23] Two animated advertisements were made by the Disney Studio.[25][26] The first one was one-minute long, having 90 feet (27 meters) long tape footage. The second one was an abbreviated version of 20-seconds, with 30 feet (9.1 meters) long tape footage. Gil George and Paul Smith were responsible for the lyrics and music of the advertisement.[25] The advertisement was initially called "We'll Take Ike", but is also known as "I Like Ike"[27] and "Ike for President".[21]

Synopsis

Refer to the caption
Uncle Sam as the drum major in "Ike for President"

The animated advertisement begins with a bouncing Ike campaign button while music plays in the background.[28] The frame then changes to Uncle Sam as the drum major leading a circus elephant. The elephant is wearing an Ike banner in his trunk, and a caricature of Eisenhower around his body, beating the drum with his tail.[29][30][28] Following the elephant is a parade of various people of different occupations,[30] which author Eric Burns writes to have "marched in exaggerated fashion with the goofiest of facial expression".[29] The people included farmers, painters, cops, businessmen, chefs, firemen, nurses, cowboys, bankers, pipe-fitters, teachers, and housewives.[28][29] The frame is then replaced by three donkeys, which author Paul Christiansen calls Democratic donkeys. The music follows: "We don't want John or Dean or Harry. Let's do that big job right",[31] mocking Democratic senator from Alabama and Stevenson's running mate John Sparkman, Secretary of State Dean Acheson, and President Harry S. Truman as donkeys. The parade then continues; a man riding a donkey is seen traveling in shadows towards the left. The music follows: "But Adlai goes the other way, We'll all go with Ike".[1] Subsequently, the United States Capitol is shown with an Ike banner. A close-up is taken of the dome of the Capitol and the rising sun. The sun turns into an Ike campaign button. The narrator says: "Now is the time for all good Americans to come to the aid of their country."[1][32]

Analysis

The advertisement used the technique of name repetition to produce a catchy jingle.[33] The phrase "Ike for President" appears a total of 15 times in the advertisement.[28] Author Victor Kamber called "Ike for President" a positive advertisement.[34] Author Thomas A. Hollihan wrote that the main purpose of the advertisement was to win name recognition and communicate that "Eisenhower enjoyed the support of people of different socioeconomic means," and "simulate the old-fashioned campaign parades of earlier days in this new visual medium."[30] Dennis W. Johnson wrote that the main goal of the advertisement was to "drive home a consistent, simple message: 'I Like Ike'", and called it the best presidential slogan ever created.[32] Christiansen writes that in "Ike for President", while Eisenhower's name receives a tonal emphasis, the word "President" is unstressed, and is "on the submediant and leading tone."[28] He speculates that the reason behind this is to emphasize Eisenhower and imply that his personality is greater than the presidency. The advertisement begins in D major but subsequently changes to F major; the tempo is constant on 120 beats per minute.[28]

Bass line of "Ike for President"

Christiansen contrasts the similarity between "Ike for President" and negro spiritual song "All God's Chillun Got Wings"; he compares "You like Ike, I like Ike, everybody likes Ike" to "I got wings, you got wings, all God's chillun got wings".[35] He refers to the final sentence by the narrator, "Now is the time for all good Americans to come to the aid of their party", which is a "party-transcending appeal to voters".[1] He wrote:

... a vote for someone beside Eisenhower must be an antipatriotic betrayal. It is a call for all good Americans to come to the aid of 'their' party, after all. Good Americans belong to the Republican Party, it would seem. Voting for Eisenhower is presented here as a patriotic act that is for the good of the nation, leaving the converse proposition unspoken: are those voting for Stevenson unpatriotic?[1]

Aftermath, impact, and legacy

Black-and-white photographic portrait of Adlai Stevenson.
Portrait of Adlai Stevenson

The "Ike for President" advertisement was shipped to major American television stations; the Eisenhower campaign's goal was to have the commercial broadcast in targeted areas four to six times in the final two weeks of the campaign. Cochran paid over $2,700 (equivalent to $0 in 2023) for over 400 copies of the advertisement.[36] Following the advertisement, the Eisenhower campaign created other commercials featuring Eisenhower's wife Mamie, which Kamber speculates to be an indirect attack against divorced Stevenson.[26][34] Reacting to the advertisement, Stevenson said: "This isn't Ivory Soap versus Palmolive".[16] Later, he called "Ike for President" the worst thing he ever heard, and said that Eisenhower is "selling the presidency like cereal";[37] he said: "How can you talk seriously about issues with one-minute spots?"[37] His campaign spent 95% of their television budget on broadcasting Stevenson's 30-minute long.[38] Though the speeches attracted a large audience, authors Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates speculated that most of the people viewing were already committed to Stevenson.[39] The Stevenson campaign also produced short animated advertisements like "Let's Not Forget the Farmer".[40]

Eisenhower won the general election, defeating Stevenson by a margin of 353 electoral votes.[41] According to businessman Stanley M. Rumbough Jr., who helped found the "Citizens for Eisenhower" committee,[42] "Ike for President" was aired in at-least 40 states, all of which except Kentucky was won the Eisenhower in the presidential election.[36] Rosser Reeves, the advertising expert of the Eisenhower campaign, later talking about the commercial, said: "It was such a landslide that it didn't make a goddamn bit of difference".[43] Roy O. Disney wrote a letter to Cochran 10 days after the election, writing that the "boys and girls all enjoyed working on the project and, of course, we are all very happy at the outcome of the election."[44] The Time magazine ranked "Ike for President" eighth in its top-ten list of campaign advertisements.[36] Author Marya Mannes, writing for The Reporter, poked fun at the advertisement and composed her version:

Eisenhower hits the spot,
One full General, that's a lot.
Feeling sluggish, feeling sick?
Take a dose of Ike and Dick.
Philip Morris, Luck Strike,
Alka-Seltzer, I like Ike.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Christiansen 2018, p. 37.
  2. ^ Ambrose 1983, pp. 275–276.
  3. ^ Busch 2012, p. 55.
  4. ^ Morris & Schwartz 1993, p. 140.
  5. ^ Ambrose 1983, p. 14.
  6. ^ Ambrose 1983, p. 478.
  7. ^ Pickett 2000, p. 35.
  8. ^ Pickett 2000, p. 76.
  9. ^ Ambrose 1983, p. 523.
  10. ^ Birkner 2003, p. 15.
  11. ^ Daniel 2000, pp. 396–397.
  12. ^ Pusey 1956, pp. 6–20.
  13. ^ SAGE Publications 2010, p. 399.
  14. ^ Pusey 1956, p. 13.
  15. ^ Lawrence 1952.
  16. ^ a b Voss 2008, p. 186.
  17. ^ Kamber 2003, p. 29.
  18. ^ a b Wood 1990, p. 266.
  19. ^ Wood 1990, pp. 266–270.
  20. ^ Diamond & Bates 1992, p. 49.
  21. ^ a b c Christiansen 2018, p. 32.
  22. ^ Eisenhower Library.
  23. ^ a b Rumbough Jr. 2013, p. 108.
  24. ^ Christiansen 2018, p. 33.
  25. ^ a b Christiansen 2018, pp. 33–34.
  26. ^ a b Diamond & Bates 1992, p. 59.
  27. ^ Rumbough Jr. 2013, p. 109.
  28. ^ a b c d e f Christiansen 2018, p. 35.
  29. ^ a b c d Burns 2010, p. 196.
  30. ^ a b c Hollihan 2009, p. 143.
  31. ^ Christiansen 2018, pp. 36–37.
  32. ^ a b Johnson 2017, p. 67.
  33. ^ Burton & Shea 2010, p. 3.
  34. ^ a b Kamber 2003, p. 30.
  35. ^ Christiansen 2018, p. 38.
  36. ^ a b c Rumbough Jr. 2013, p. 111.
  37. ^ a b Burns 2010, p. 197.
  38. ^ Kamber 2003, pp. 30–31.
  39. ^ Diamond & Bates 1992, p. 46.
  40. ^ Benoit 2016, p. 22.
  41. ^ SAGE Publications 2010, p. 787.
  42. ^ Mason 2013, p. 519.
  43. ^ Kamber 2003, p. 31.
  44. ^ Christiansen 2018, p. 34.

Works cited

Books

Journals and articles

Further reading

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