50 Years of Political Manipulation Later…

At 9:55 pm on September 7th 1964, in between segments of Monday Night at the Movies’ screening of “David and Bathsheba”, NBC aired a 60-second paid political advertisement for President Lyndon Johnson. The ad was called “Peace, Little Girl”. But for 50 years it’s been known exclusively as “the Daisy ad”. It’s also considered the most powerful and controversial political advertisment of all time, and the subject of Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre’s next political theatre project. We wanted to take advantage of his momentous 50th Anniversary in the history of media to let you in on a project we’ve been developing.

After my first two plays (Re:Union, Except in the Unlikely Event of War) I’ve been writing this new work Daisy for the past year-and-a-half. The staggering amount of research on this project dates back over a decade. And HHG Theatre is extremely excited to share the current developments for this new work, which we’re aiming to bring to an international premiere in Fall 2015. Just in time for the next Canadian federal election.

Created by communications guru Tony Schwartz and the advertising mavericks at the famed Madison Avenue agency of Doyle Dane Bernbach, ‘the Daisy ad’ was heralded as much for the beauty of its simplicity as the devastating impact of its underlying message. The sixty-second message decimated any chances Republican Senator Barry Goldwater ever had of becoming President, without ever showing his face or even using his name. It achieved this feat through an innovative and artful exploitation of the pre-existing fears and assumptions of the voting public, elevating the role of emotional response in political campaigning to a level never seen before.

This HHG Theatre project has enjoyed an amazing research and partnership development process, which continues over the next few months. Several artists from previous HHG Theatre shows will be developing Daisy, including Re:Union‘s John Langs, Jason H. Thompson, Noah Drew and Alexa Devine.

Daisy has been commissioned by a New York City theatre company that I’m not allowed to name yet, but it’s very exciting. And so it’s conceivable that an off-Broadway world premiere production of Daisy might happen. And through our existing relationships with Seattle’s ACT Theatre, Daisy will be workshopped there as part of ACT’s Construction Zone new play development program.

But it’s the superb access to research materials and archives that have made this project a truly remarkable experience so far. In 2008 I had the chance to meet Tony Schwartz, one of the ad’s creators, just a few months before he died. I continue my relationship with the Schwartz family to this day. Through that association I’ve been granted unprecedented access to the Library of Congress Tony Schwartz Collection, where I’ll will be returning this October to collect audio-visual materials for the production.

Also through my relationship with the Schwartz family, I’m now in regular contact with one of Tony’s proteges, communications professor John Carey. Check out this article John wrote recently for Media Post to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘the Daisy ad’. I got to interview John in New York in December 2013, and will have a second interview in October. But in between, John has sent me a treasure chest’s worth of archives, including:

• Actual recording tapes of ‘the Daisy ad’, including 3 different edits of the commercial
• the actual tape recorder and microphone that Tony Schwartz used to record ‘Daisy’ and 20,000 other commercials
• hand drawings and sketches of the famous basement studio Tony Schwartz worked in

I was also fortunate enough to have developed a relationship with DDB, the world-famous ad agency that produced the ads for the 1064 campaign. Last December I got to sit in the NYC offices of these real-life “Mad Men”, and spent several hours talking to retired ad-men Don Blauweiss, Chuck Schroeder, as well as the famous Sid Myers, the art director who created the visuals for the ‘Daisy’ ad.

And as I head back down to New York City in October, I’ll finally be connecting with the actor who performed brilliantly in the almost-as-famous “Confessions of a Republican” commercial, which was ground-breaking in its own ways. After spending weeks trying to track this actor down, I’ll get to sit down with William Bogert and interview him about his experience shooting this famous spot.

As always, HHG Theatre is forever grateful to our many partners and sponsors, as well as our generous funders, including the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the City of Vancouver, and Ensemble Studio Theatre.