Tony Schwartz, creator of "Daisy" ad, dead at 84

by: Mack Simpson

Mon Jun 16, 2008 at 00:52 PM CDT

Creator of the famous and controversial "Daisy" ad during the 1964 Presidential campaign between Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry M. Goldwater, his commercial, which aired only once, is widely credited as having contributed to LBJ's victory... and of having launched the current era of negative political advertising.

"The best political commercials are Rorschach patterns," he wrote in his book "The Responsive Chord" (Anchor Press, 1973). "They do not tell the viewer anything. They surface his feelings and provide a context for him to express these feelings." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06...

There is something perhaps both poignant and poetic about Mr. Schwartz passing during a Presidential election year in which both candidates have vowed to refrain from negative attacks.

We'll all have to see if their rhetoric matches reality.