Eisenhower for President (1952)

Filed under: Animation, 1950s, Commercials, Propaganda, U.S.A., Walt Disney Studios,

Eisenhower for President

Producers:

Roy O. Disney

Jacqueline Cochran

Citizens for Eisenhower Committee

Paul Helms

Animated by:

Walt Disney Studios (volunteer animators)

Music by:

Gil George

Paul Smith

Irving Berlin

Studio:

Walt Disney Studios

Release date:

1952

Running time:

1 min

Color process:

B&W

Synopsis

Referred to as “Ike for President,” “We’ll Take Ike,” or “I Like Ike” was a one-minute political television advertisement for Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign for presidency of the United States. Conceived by Jacqueline Cochran, an Eisenhower campaign aide, Cochran reached out to Roy O. Disney of The Walt Disney Company to produce the project. Since The Walt Disney Company was a union shop, unpaid Disney volunteers worked on the ad. It became the first campaign ad aired on television.

Reception:

Eisenhower won the election with about 55% of the popular vote defeating his opponent Democrat, Adlai E. Stevenson, by 353 electoral votes. Time Magazine ranked as one of the Top Ten campaign advertisements.

References:

Christiansen, Paul Victor. “1. The Age of Innocence.” Orchestrating Public Opinion: How Music Persuades in Television Political Ads for US Presidential Campaigns, 1952-2016, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2018, pp. 31–41.

Data Archive Elections. “1952: The American Presidency Project.” The American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/1952.

Time Magazine. “Top 10 Campaign Ads.” Time, 22 Sept. 2008, http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842516_1842514_1842527,00.html.