Political

Five of the best political adverts: It’s Time

Lyndon B. Johnson‘s famous TV advert for his Presidential re-election campaign, Daisy Girl, was a one-off, but by contrast one of the most effective TV advertisements in Australian political history was part of a well-planned wider campaign.

After 23 years of Liberal Party rule, Gough Whitlam’s Labor party in 1972 used the slogan “It’s time“ to sum up its argument that it was time for a change. This theme was reflected widely in the Labor Party’s activities and also in the classic TV advert.

Looking more like the sort of pop video that subsequently became popular, the advert featured an Australian rock singer, Alison McCallum, singing a song about how it was time to change, intercut with stills of Gough Whitlam’s background and a supporting singing chorus of Australian celebrities.

It worked far better than that might make it sound!

You can see all the posts in this series on my Political Ads page – including the amazingly bizarre Luis Fishman classic. The stretch from 7 seconds in until 22 seconds in is fairly normal. But as for the rest…

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