This commercial was shown only once on television in 1964 election between LBJ and Barry Goldwater, AKA Mr. Conservative, who favored reducing social programs and increasing military might. LBJ provides the voice over here, implying that if we aren't careful and start a nuclear war, all of us will die. And with trigger-happy Goldwater, this could very well happen.^*

If you talk to any expert in the industry, they will cite this commercial as the beginning of visceral campaign ads. No one had made this insane juxtaposition of an innocent little girl and a nuclear bomb going off before. The following morning everyone was talking about it. Parents were calling in to complain their children were mentally scarred. Newspaper Op-Eds were filed with commentary. Which is pretty much what the LBJ campaign wanted: free publicity. Because it worked so well, later presidential elections would copy it and descend into the hell we are in today.

I was listening to a radio show commemorating this commercial's fiftieth anniversary last Sunday, and panelists questioned why no one mentions what came before that. Although it is celebrated as a pivotal turning point, we all forget that this still happened relatively early in television's history. There literally were only two elections before this that television existed in. Eisenhower ran commercials and actually was criticized for it; television was too base and was sullying the act of running for president. So what were Eisenhower's commercials like? Here we go:

I'm not certain if this is better or worse than nowadays.

^* I actually don't know much about Goldwater, so I have no idea whether this was feasible for him or hyperbole.