1950s. Her class is about an hour and ten minutes. Nothing perhaps captures the popular memory of the 1950s like the slogan i like ike. This idea that this spin that so many people wore around the campaign of 1952 and 1956 conveys a notion of nostalgia and simplicity. It shows the 1950s as an era of prosperity where america was a world leader and American People were happy in their suburban homes. I like ike is simple. But this is a myth and a political construction. The 1950s in fact was a time full of racial discrimination. Conflict, intense political and social pressures to conform to a suburban ideal. And mandated heterosexuality in the law. It was a time when anticommunism targeted the liberal impulses of the new deal and anticommunists took away civil liberties. These are all different political pressures for enforcing certain ideals and resisting those that we will look at next week. But i like ike requests as a political construct shifted saengs attention away from those divisions and it created a sense of consensus. In many ways again this is political construction. And at the root of it was a very innovative and transformative Marketing Campaign that transformed a military hero into a political celebrity. And he used that attention to win the presidency. Often we think of john f. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan as ushering in the Television Presidency but in fact it was Dwight Eisenhower and this is what we are going to look at today. Dwight eisenhower brought several important developments to the modern american presidency through his leadership style and his organizational approach. In doing this he built on a lot of the transformations weve already looked at this semester. For example Franklin Roosevelt launched the executive office of the presidency. And last week we looked at how harry truman expanded it with the National Security state. Dwight eisenhower, however, formalized it. He ran his office very much like he did the military. The bureaucracy became a very entrenched and well focused and executed component of the american presidency under eisenhower. For example, he had weekly Cabinet Meetings and he formed the office of Congressional Liaison so he could have a formal link to the legislative process. And this was especially important because throughout the 1950s the Democratic Party controlled congress. So eisenhower recognized that to get things done he needed to have a really smooth operation in terms of links with congress. But he also brought this organizational focus to this shifting media environment and transformed the white house into a production studio. And to do that he worked very closely with hollywood figures and madison avenue Television Executives and companies to navigate the new mass medium of television that ultimately really transformed american political communication during the 1950s. So this postworld war ii era is really a key moment to understand the rise of entertainment, advertising, television and hollywood in american politics because television really does drastically change the political scene during the 1950s. So the questions that i want us to think about today as we study this particular period are how does television change leadership styles . How does it change strategies of political communication and qualifications needed to succeed politically . And the key question that were going to come back to at the end of class is does television revolutionize the american presidency, or does it build on trends that are already in place . So to get at that question we need to start by thinking about what are the trends that are already in place. Does television launch a significant break in terms of leadership strategies and communication strategies. So what trends are already in place before the launch of television in the 1950s . What does Theodore Roosevelt bring to the presidency . Theodore roosevelt brought like increased Media Connections at the beginning of the 20th century to start formalizing the process of like the executive office and the media. Excellent. Didnt he also setup the west wing as a sort of source to have the press like within the white house in order to have a connection with them as well . Yes. And again these are key in terms of he valued the press. He saw the press is as an asset, as an asset, something he wanted to capitalize on their place to control and help shape Public Opinion. Excellent. He also had the fireside chats, so there was already this idea of there is this personalized president that if every person has a radio in their home, they can listen to him and its like hes speaking to them using rhetoric easy to understand, not super complicated political jargon. So Franklin Roosevelt really brings in this idea of a fireside chat. So Theodore Roosevelt uses the presidency as a bully pulpit. He creates heez relationships with journalists and again uses Public Opinion to launch and advocate for a very specific policy. Franklin roosevelt takes this a step further. So he capitalizes on radio and uses that to create an intimate connection with the american public. And im going to play you a quick clip just to give you a sense of what this sounded like. Again, thinking about if you were a listener, you were tuning into your radio during the 1930s to listen to your president , this would have been what you heard. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. My friends, i want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking. The mechanics of banking, more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of the products and the drawing of change. What did he do just in that very simple opening . He definitely personalizes the chat. He uses i, you, we, and he creates this personal link between the presidency and the people so that they feel like hes on their side and that they also have a place in this huge bureaucratic thing that he has begun to create. Absolutely. Personalizing the presidency, that is so key. For those of you who looked at a lot of critics of new deal programs how does he bypass that with the radio . If someone doesnt agree with a particular program what is he able to do with radio . Hes able to directly appeal to the American People with the radio and bypass like say newspapers that have editorial slants against new deal policies and just to work around old institutions that were against him. Absolutely. Thats really key. Thinking about the power that this gives. It creates that personal relationship, that intimacy between the president and an individual in their home. And then it also allows him to to challenge the narrative. Overwhelmingly at this time people got their information from newspapers. And many newspaper editors were against the new deal. Overwhelmingly at this time newspapers were conservative, more critical of roosevelts policies so the radio becomes a new opportunity to connect directly to audiences. And if you recall, its not just radio that he uses. He also used theaters and Motion Pictures to sell certain programs. He capitalized on the news reels that would have been shown at the beginning of a Motion Picture feature. But he also worked with a variety of different studios in hollywood to create production shorts like this one which promoted the National Recovery administration. You and you and you youve got a president now. You and you put shoulders to the plow, he gave us what we asked for now pay him back somehow step out in front and give a man a job he bore the brunt now bear with the president and give a man a job makes the old heart proud, you take this message straight from the president and give a man a job you look like a banker. Who drives your car . I drive it myself. Have a cigar. Keep your cigar and hire a chauffeur. Keep a man from becoming a loafer. You look like a grocer. No, sir, my job is extermination. You must keep each a nice weeks vacation. And ill need more men to kill the rats. He wants you to hire a crowd. You hang a sign that means no rats allowed. Whats the matter with you . Im a very sick woman. Oh, a hypocondriac. Or any kind of an itis that will delight us. In that way, you will help end employment. Listen to me, everybody, step up and get back out front and give a man a job. He wore the brunt, you know that and i know that, so step up and give a man a job. Ill tell you and when i do itll give your heart a start. You take this message straight from the president and give a man a job. So what does this do thats different from the fireside chats . Go ahead, brent. It turns president ial policy into an entertainment product. Absolutely. Its very much like the beginning of the whole concept of marketing. Absolutely. Excellent. Excellent. I was going to say it takes its no longer the president advocating for himself but its normal people advocating for the president that normal people would want the president and that they are very much for his policies and that he has caused all of this economic boom and all of these all this prosperity within the country. Yeah, so the focus the hero of this story is Franklin Roosevelt. Right, hes featured at the end, his portrait. But he has a variety of other people who are helping sell this. A comedian in this capacity, a variety of different celebrities come out for Franklin Roosevelt to do this. Radio spokesmen and radio personalities all are selling the president for him. So again a different kind of Production Team in terms of selling a particular policy. Excellent. Adam . It kind of creates the sound bite. So if you can take different snippets of what the guy was saying like give back to the president or give a man a job, those are easy to remember jingles, so you could put those into some sort of radio advertisement or, you know, that just appeals to a more general audience. Theyre going to remember that message whether or not they heard the whole song or not or whether or not they heard about all the different ways they can help. Theyre going to remember give a man a job. Absolutely, the slogan. So again bringing some of these features, the advertising at this time, and hollywood, bringing them into politics to sell particular policies. And the only reason you will not be humming give a man a job later this day is because youre going to hum the i like ike one because its a lot catch ier lucas . I thought it was interesting holding the president up but using it as a selling point. In this case it was actually getting the people involved in a specific policy so its actually helping the common man or the middle class man to come out and without you we cant do this, but with you you can be part of this grander thing thats helping all americans. And that is really key as well when we think about media and new media and the presidency. Because really effective president s are able to use new media to win elections, but then also to govern. To use it as a tool to sell their agenda as well. And making that transition from communication on the campaign trail to communication once in office is really key. And this is why what Dwight Eisenhower does with television is also really important because he follows that trajectory. In term of using new media to win an election and then reshape how he governs and how he sets the agenda as lucas pointed out. So, again, we see a lot of the new possibilities in terms of preventing an agenda, shaping Public Opinion and promoting a personality that comes with radio and Motion Pictures. So what about television . Does television bring something fundamentally new to american politics and to the american presidency . I want to throw a couple of numbers out because i think it really conveys how dramatically television grew and reshaped american politics. In 1949 only 172,000 Television Sets had sold. That number jumped to over 52 million by 1953. This is an incredibly dramatic growth of a new technology that forced politicians to grapple with presenting themselves and their policies to voters through tv screens rather than newspaper articles, Radio Broadcasts or even these Motion Picture shorts. And one of the key things to think about is that this growth of a new technology caused tremendous anxiety and concern. And its really important to understand that this is postworld war ii, that it becomes so powerful. There was deep concern over the manipulative power of propaganda at this time. And the ways it could be used to undermine democracy and to promote totalitarian governments. After all Adolph Hitler and the nazi party in germany had a very effective propaganda machine. Its how they were able to consolidate power by limiting information over new medias. So too did Joseph Stalin in the soviet union. And so these concerns about the manipulative power of the new media and even old media, Motion Pictures in particular, were really at the core of a lot of anticommunist investigations particularly the ones that featured the Motion Picture industry in 1947. The central question that was debated in the halls of congress as a variety of actors came to testify about their political activity was were they using entertainment, were they using their celebrity for undemocratic purposes. Quote, glamour is appealing, the communists have made shrewd in excellent use of it for their purpose. They are trying to bedazzle audiences with celebrity. And so this is a question that pervaded national politics. Is entertainment media, Motion Pictures and this new media of television that people werent quite sure what to do with, is this going to undermine democracy . Does it focus more attention on entertainment, and can it be used as a way to advance communism . These were central questions that people had. So these fears of entertainment and propaganda and manipulation are really important to understand when we see the different ways that politicians grappled with television. Some of them embraced television and the opportunities that it had to offer, but overwhelmingly in the 1950s they were very wary of it. And the argument that we dont want to manipulate others by embracing advertising, sales advertising in madison avenue, that really dominated Public Discourse during the 1950s. For example, the democratic nominee for the presidency in 1952 and 1956 stevenson looked very disdainfully on the medium that sold president s as commodities. Quote, the idea you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal i think is the ultimate intigdy to in dignity to the democratic process argued stevenson. He wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand his message, to deliver longer speeches but not to use any of those slick sale techniques that madison avenue executives were using to sell cereal. He wanted to use this new medium to perhaps expand the message that he was already delivering to audiences. And so what he did during the 1952 election is that he did allow some advertisers to create some catchy jingles for him but he refused to be a part of that production. He said if you want to do that like the way we did with radio thats fine but im not going to appear in the short advertisement. Theres no way i can talk about a policy in 30 seconds. So instead Adlai Stevenson worked with the Democratic National committee and purchased longer chunks of time. So an hour perhaps where he would then go in front of a tv camera and deliver a long speech about a particular policy. Well, if youre going to purchase an hour of tv time and you have a limited budget when will that time be . And he thought when can you afford that time, right . Whenever its cheapest. Absolutely. Which would probably be late at night when its not prime time. Exactly. So when Adlai Stevenson did appear on tv it was late at night, when the only people watching were perhaps those people who were committed democrats that wanted to watch what stevenson had to say. So thats only time he appeared in these purchased periods on television. And he had his Advertising Team make ads again that reflected radio strategy. Im going to show you two of them and i want you to think about how these are perhaps reminiscent of something youd hear over the radio than something youd see on tv. Old mcdonald had a farm back in 31 just broken down farmland everywhere farmer mack knows what to do, election day of 52 to look for Adlai Stevenson with a vote vote here, a vote for stephenson everywhere, well if its good for mack you see its good for you and good for me vote stevenson today all right, one more and well discuss. Ike. Bob. Ike. Bob. Im so glad were friends again, bob. Yes, ike, we agree on everything. Lets never separate again, bob. So bob refers to robert taft who was the other contender for the presidency in the Republican Party. And he was the more conservative candidate. And eisenhower was promoted at this time as the moderate republican. And so that, you know, makes a particular argument about their relationship. So what did you notice about these two commercials . Carolyn . All the visuals were merely like ornamentation, like you mentioned earlier these could have just been played over the radio and honestly it would have had the same effectiveness and also it doesnt really feature any of the candidates at all, like