A Political Ad For the Ages Selling Hope
In my almost forty-year advertising career, I never worked on a political ad campaign. Not that I didn’t want to, I just never had the opportunity.
That said, I think I can spot a winner when I see it.
And this is my armchair political marketeer declaration–– the Biden/Harris commercial “Go From There” is the greatest presidential commercial since 1984’s Ronald Reagan’s “Morning Again in America” spot written by legendary adman Hal Riney.
Riney’s Reagan spot put him and his agency on the map. Following Reagan’s re-election victory, business titans across America told their marketing directors to “get the guy behind that Reagan spot.” And Hal Riney’s fame, fortune, and agency skyrocketed. I was a beneficiary of this boom, I worked at Riney’s San Francisco office in the early ’90s.
These two commercials created thirty-six-years apart share some similar characteristics.
Both spots play on our patriotism and hope for a better future. Both show Americans working together, playing together, being kind to each other. And both are cinematic masterpieces married to beautifully-written tone poems delivered by men whose voices have been tempered by experience and wisdom, cured in finely-aged bourbon.
For the Reagan spot, it’s Hal Riney’s pipes. For Biden, it’s Sam Elliott, The Stranger who dispensed pearls of wisdom from his bowling alley barstool to The Dude in “The Big Lebowski.”
Let’s look at the scripts.
Biden’s “Go From There”–– “There is only one America. No Democratic rivers, no Republican mountains. Just this great land and all that’s possible on it with a fresh start — cures we can find, futures we can shape, work to reward, dignity to protect. There is so much we can do if we choose to take on problems and not each other, and choose a president who brings out our best. Joe Biden doesn’t need everyone in this country to always agree, just to agree we all love this country and go from there.”
Reagan’s “Morning Again in America”–– “It’s morning again in America. Today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country’s history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 1980, nearly 2,000 families today will buy new homes, more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon 6,500 young men and women will be married, and with inflation at less than half of what it was just four years ago, they can look forward with confidence to the future. It’s morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?”
Reagan was running for a second term. He was making the case for continuing his presidency, listing accomplishments made under his leadership.
Biden has no presidential track record; he was second banana to Obama for eight-years. What he does have is a stark contrast to the current leadership of President Donald J. Trump, a man who lacks empathy. His term has been rooted in division, disruption, grievance, victimhood, fear-mongering, science denial, and conspiracies. Biden is asking us to lay down our arms and come together again for the sake of our country and our democracy.
The closing argument, presented in the silky baritone of Sam Elliott, is simple: “Joe Biden doesn’t need everyone in this country to always agree, just to agree we all love this country and go from there.”
It’s almost as if The Stranger intones, “The Biden abides.”
The Reagan and Biden spots don’t get in the weeds of policies. Both sell the allure of a brighter future for Americans. And if there were ever a time for us to rally together to make our lives better, this is it.
As Rodney King said, “Can we all get along?”
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Enjoy PD Scullin’s debut novel “SAWDUST: Love is wilder than a circus,” a dark humor romp across America in the early ’80s. You’re a click away from a helluva fun ride. Buckle up and go.