1968 Presidential Campaign Commercials
A Nation Coming Apart: The 1968 Presidential Campaign Commercials
If the 1964 election was about nuclear anxiety, the 1968 election was about domestic survival. To watch these 1968 presidential campaign commercials step into a time capsule of a country that felt it was spinning violently out of control.
There has perhaps never been a year in American history quite like 1968. By the time the general election began, the nation had already endured the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The electorate was not merely undecided; it was traumatized.
The 1968 presidential campaign commercials reflect this fracture. They are darker, faster, and more abrasive than anything that had come before. This was the year that television advertising ceased to be a novelty and became the primary battleground for the American presidency.
The Controlled Image vs. The Fractured Coalition
On one side stood Richard Nixon, a man who had learned the hard lessons of his 1960 defeat. His team, led by a new breed of media consultants, understood that in a chaotic world, the most attractive product they could sell was control.
As you explore the Nixon archive linked above, notice the discipline. The Republican campaign utilized a technique that was revolutionary at the time: fast-paced montages of still photography set to dissonant sound effects or rhythmic narration. They didn’t just film the candidate talking; they visualized his platform. They turned “Law and Order” from a slogan into a visceral feeling, using imagery of riots and unrest to suggest that he was the only barrier between society and anarchy.
On the other side was Vice President Hubert Humphrey, a happy warrior trapped in a tragic year. Inheriting a Democratic Party that was tearing itself apart over the Vietnam War, Humphrey’s media strategy was initially disorganized and underfunded. His commercials attempt to project optimism and unity—the “Politics of Joy”—but they often struggle to find their footing against the backdrop of a grim reality.
The Death of Innocence
What makes the 1968 presidential campaign commercials so compelling to watch today is their complete lack of innocence. The polished, grandfatherly reassurance of the Eisenhower years was gone. In its place was a gritty, sometimes cynical realism.
The candidates were no longer just competing against each other; they were competing against the nightly news. With the war in Vietnam beaming directly into living rooms every evening, political ads had to match the intensity of the journalism Americans were consuming.
Why the 1968 Presidential Campaign Commercials Matter
The 1968 election changed the rules of the game. It marked the moment when the “selling of the President” became a calculated science. It proved that a candidate’s image could be rehabilitated through paid media, and that the right montage could speak louder than a thousand stump speeches.
We invite you to explore the two 1968 Presidential Campaign Commercials above. In them, you will see two very different visions of how to heal—or how to govern—a broken nation.
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