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| Fifth Column |
| Anti-War Group Revives the ’Daisy’ Ad |
| 2003-01-16 |
| Revisiting a jarring television commercial from the Cold War era, a grass-roots anti-war group has remade the 1964 "Daisy" ad, warning that a war against Iraq could spark nuclear Armageddon. Like the original, the 30-second ad by the Internet-based group MoveOn.org depicts a girl plucking petals from a daisy - along with a missile launch countdown and a nuclear mushroom cloud. The original ad was produced by President Johnson's campaign to paint his Republican rival, Barry Goldwater, as an extremist who might lead the United States to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The ad created such negative reaction that it was pulled after only one showing, but Johnson went on to a landslide victory. MoveOn.org released its version to the media Wednesday and was to air the ad Thursday in 13 major U.S. cities at a cost of $400,000. Its ad includes scenes of military escalation before the mushroom cloud appears. Then the screen goes black, with a warning that a war might end quickly - or it might spread to other countries and end with "the unthinkable." The ad ends with the message: "Maybe that's why the overwhelming majority of Americans say to President Bush: Let the inspections work." It's ads like this that cause most americans to say to you, "F**k Off, A-hole!" MoveOn.org's leaders hope the ad will persuade more Americans to oppose a military solution in Iraq. "We wanted to run an ad that would highlight that very real possibility (of nuclear war) and help encourage a national discussion," said Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's international campaign director. Despite the announcement Thursday that U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq had found 11 empty chemical warheads that they said Iraq had not declared as required, MoveOn.org said the campaign would continue. "I think this is exactly what we like to see, the inspectors are there to find weapons and destroy them," Pariser said. Some media experts were skeptical the ad would sway public opinion. "It's more of a news ad designed to get media attention," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Barbara O'Connor, director of California State University's Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media, added that viewers may tune out the horrific images. MoveOn.org, founded in San Francisco in 1998 to lobby against the impeachment of President Clinton, also has organized an online signature campaign against the war, and last month spent more than $300,000 on newspaper ads urging President Bush to avoid war. Ah huh, the usual suspects, again. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 MoveOn started as an email-based group opposed to the Clinton impeachment (that's what we were supposed to "move on" from). Classic example of mission creep, they've become a general purpose Left/Demo group. Wouldn't rule out turbans behind the "16x goal" fundraising, but that's sure not where they started out. |
| Posted by: VAMark 2003-01-17 12:16:42 |
| #6 Actually, the ad works AGAINST them: The Add suggests that being tough on Saddam would invite nuclear war on US soil. The standard scenario we all are putting forth is the saddam/terorist link: Saddam develops WMD, hands them off to terrorist groups, who smuggle them into the USA and detonates them. For the left to sponsor this Ad IS TO ADMIT THAT SADDAM HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS NOW. They're scraping the bottom of the barrel, digging into the distant past (the 60's) for an AD from the era when the righteous liberals (Johnson) thumped the evil conservatives (Goldwater). How convenient to forget who REALLY started Vietnam... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-01-17 07:56:18 |
| #5 From their website: "Initial funding for MoveOn was provided by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd. We have also received generous contributions from many other individuals. Because MoveOn.org has only a tiny staff, our costs are very low. You can support our work with a secure online contribution. Almost all of our funding comes through these donations from people like you. Our charitable activities are supported in part by grants from the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, the Iraq Peace Fund, and anonymous donors. Fiscal sponsorship is provided by the San Francisco Foundation Community Initiative Funds, a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code." The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Foundation sponsors the usual run of envirogroups - Tides Foundation & Tides Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, etc. The Munson Foundation favors the same set. "Iraq Peace Fund" seems to be a subsidiary of the Tides Foundation. The anonymous donors may wear turbans when relaxing or may be domestic saps. The San Francisco guys are usual suspects - Bill Quick's probably familiar with them. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-01-16 22:50:00 |
| #4 I am not sure if this group is anti-American or simply ant- Republican but they are clearly well organized. It would be nice to know more about the leadership of this group. |
| Posted by: TJ Jackson 2003-01-16 21:29:48 |
| #3 In the current climate, moveon.org better be careful that the ads do not backfire on their cause and lead public opinion towards nuking Iraq and North Korea first, before any of our little children are harmed. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-01-16 16:34:26 |
#2 Here's the first 2 paragraphs from their e-mail newsletter today:
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| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2003-01-16 16:33:13 |
| #1 Actually, MoveOn only wanted a newspaper ad and begged it's membership for funds to spread the message - they were hoping for $27,000 for an ad in the New York Times. But the anti-warriors dug deep and donated more than $400,000! Now they've got a full-fledged print/radio/tv advertising campaign planned. Damm it! |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2003-01-16 16:29:34 |