0011040155
DETROIT FREE PRESS
001105
Sunday, November 05, 2000
METRO FINAL
1J
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 2000, Detroit Free Press
HOW TIMES CHANGE; JUST CHECK DAISIES
The TV commercial featured a little girl, standing in a field, picking a
daisy. She began to count the petals, "1 ...2 ...3 . . ."
Then, as little girls sometimes do, she got confused by the numbers. As she
mixed them up, a new voice rose in the background. It was a man's voice,
counting down a nuclear missile launch. "10 ...9 ...8 . . ."
Boom! An explosion.
Then a mushroom cloud.
Then another voice, quoting a poem.
Then an appeal to vote for Lyndon Johnson.
Believe it or not, this commercial was considered so controversial back in
1964 it only ran once. Once! Yet it became the most famous political ad ever.
Commonly referred to as "Daisy," it has been studied in political science
classes and is revered by pundits for its one-punch impact.
A few weeks ago -- 36 years after the original Daisy -- a pro-Republican group
made a new version. It also used a little girl, counting petals. It also ended
with a nuclear bomb.
But unlike the original, this ad mentioned the enemy. The enemy was Al Gore.
The message was that Gore and President Bill Clinton sold nuclear technology
to "Red China" that would enable the Chinese to "threaten our homes."
Therefore, vote Republican.
If the first Daisy ad created an uproar -- after only airing once -- you would
figure this one, slated to air many times, would do the same, right?
Wrong.
What shocks us today?
The fact is, few people even noticed the new Daisy ad. It was a one-day story
in the media. Little outrage. Little fear. In the end, it was pulled.
Still, it got me wondering: What has changed since 1964? How could something
that once had to be yanked from view -- because it was so chilling -- now be
so lazily dismissed?
Little girl, bomb, future in doubt -- which part no longer shocked us?
Was it the children and violence thing? Have we grown so inured to true-life
horror stories that we can't get worked up over a theatrical one?
After all, with Columbine High School, with 11-year-old killers, with the
recent report that a group of men and boys had molested a 13-year-old,
mentally disabled girl, perhaps the clash of childish innocence with mankind's
brutality no longer startles us.
Is that our Daisy difference?
Or was it the part about nuclear weapons? Maybe we've seen so many "simulated"
explosions we can't get bugged by real ones? After all, the film "Independence
Day" forever embedded the picture of the White House, symbol of our
government, being blown to bits. The Gulf War showed us real people dying on
TV -- while we sat at home, eating potato chips. Movies and TV shows
unabashedly feature footage of nuclear explosions. Maybe the mushroom cloud
ain't what it used to be.
Or maybe it's the part about Red China. In the global economy, are people numb
to communism? We've seen Russia crumble, and East Germany erased from the map.
In 1964, the Cold War raged. Now the cold is in our haughty ignorance of
foreign affairs.
Is that our Daisy difference?
Who lowered the bar?
Or perhaps it is something else. Perhaps politicians have dropped our
standards so low, nothing shocks us.
Remember, back in 1964, what really jolted people was the image of kids and
bombs being used for political gain. To win a vote? Why, it just wasn't done!
It was so ...inappropriate.
Now? What is inappropriate? George W. Bush and Al Gore seem ready to do
anything to shave a point. And the people behind their parties are even more
desperate.
I called Tony Schwartz, who created the original Daisy spot in 1964. Now an
older man, he noted, with pride, that his ad never mentioned the opponent.
"There are two types of ads, those that show what you do right, and those that
simply attack," he said. "And this new one simply attacks. They stole our idea
and produced a piece of junk."
They also failed to steal the one thing that truly made Daisy No. 1 unique.
Remember I mentioned that it closed with a poem?
Well, the poem was from W.H. Auden. And the quote was this: "We must either
love each other or we must die."
"We must either love each other or we must die."
How many of us believed that in '64?
How many of us believe it now?
If you ask me, that's the real difference between Daisies old and new.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com.
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