The Selling of the President, 1968
The Selling of the President, 1968, nonfictional book about the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard M. Nixon written by American author Joe McGinniss that became one of the most-influential books on the campaigns of American presidential candidates. The book became a New York Times best seller in 1969. It was an exposé of how Nixon’s advertising team remade his public image to resemble that of a good and decent man. Such image making ran counter to the beliefs of the general public that candidates were genuinely presented as themselves and not as creations of an advertising team.
Nixon had previously run for president and lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960. During that election the American people formed a rather unfavourable opinion of Richard Nixon, viewing him as an ugly, boring, cold man. It was apparent from the 1960 election that his old image could not win in 1968 either, and it was thus necessary to remake his image for the voters. Nixon’s advisers discovered that television was the best medium for advertising his new, warmer image.
The book includes quotes made by Nixon and his advertising crew while they were filming Nixon’s television commercials. Nixon had different commercials with different scripts for various parts of the country and a series of hour-long question-and-answer sessions with pro-Nixon citizens and media.. The book explains how Nixon’s advisers created a series of commercials in which Nixon did not have to actually appear or speak much. The commercials consisted of crowd-pleasing still photographs with Nixon’s voice in the background, designed to divert the audience’s attention away from the words of Nixon and toward the emotional appeal presented by the still photographs. The last part of the book is an appendix that details campaign memos and texts for the actual television ads.
The Selling of the President, 1968 was widely considered to be the first book of its kind. Revealing the influence that image making can have on political campaigning, it has significant value to the study of politics, government, and communication and serves as a prime example of how politicians must carefully devise an image to present to the voters to gain their vote.