Catchy campaign slogans can be traced as far back as 1840
By JEANNIE EMSER SCHULTZ
By the time this article is published, Americans will likely be suffering from political campaign advertising overload. Hardly a 21st Century practice, America’s love-hate relationship with presidential campaign advertising dates back as far as 1840 when voters were bombarded by what is considered the first catchy campaign call-to-action: “Tippecanoe and Tyler too!”
Whig party candidate William Henry Harrison used his military victory over Shawnee Chief Tecumseh in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe to advertise his candidacy, including the name of his running mate John Tyler. The rhyme promoted Harrison’s war hero image, contributing to his win against incumbent President, Martin Van Buren. (Unfortunately, Harrison’s campaign was longer than his presidency as he died from pneumonia just one month into his term, becoming the first president to die in office.)
Harrison’s campaign and catchy slogan would set the stage for presidential advertising platforms in future elections. In 1896, the first instance of U.S. mass-produced campaign buttons came during the heated presidential race between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan. It ushered in a golden age of political buttons—the trick being to employ a rhyme, pun or word play to craft phrases succinct enough to fit on a lapel button. Some of those have included Calvin Coolidge’s 1924 re-election slogan “Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge;” Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “I Like Ike;” and Lyndon B. Johnson’s “All the Way with LBJ” (inspired by Adlai Stevenson’s ’52 failed run against Eisenhower that touted “All the Way with Adlai”).
And, like Eisenhower’s appropriation of Stevenson’s slogan, some slogans were so successful they were recycled by other candidates. Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt both used the metaphor “Don’t Swap Horses in Midstream,” encouraging voters to support the incumbent during times of war (Lincoln during the Civil War; FDR for an unprecedented fourth term win during World War II).
More recently, Barack Obama’s effective slogan was borrowed from the United Farm Workers phrase “Si, Se Puede!” Translated, the catchphrase became “Yes We Can!” Likewise, the Trump campaign’s “Make America Great Again” was first used by Barry Goldwater’s failed ’64 presidential bid and again in 1980 by Ronald Reagan with “Let’s Make America Great Again.” Reagan was also credited for campaigning to “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Positive campaign slogans that offered hope or calls to keep prosperity’s status quo included McKinley’s “Four More Years of the Full Dinner Pail” in 1900; Herbert Hoover’s “A Chicken in Every Pot & A Car in Every Garage;” and FDR’s 1932 “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Some past campaign buttons have entertained with witty messages, like Jimmy Carter’s re-election button touting “Rosalyn Carter for First Lady 1980,” or one capitalizing on former peanut farmer Carter’s winning smile, showing a peanut with a toothsome smile saying, “The Grin Will Win.” The message of an anti-Lyndon Johnson button in 1968 purported, “The LBJ Cocktail: America on the Rocks.”
Yet a winning slogan isn’t always just about having the catchiest saying but shaping the campaign narrative or creating perceptions about the candidate. Such a slogan helped George H.W. Bush defeat Michael Dukakis in ‘88 with “Read my lips: no new taxes,” which became the catch phrase of TV’s Saturday Night Live’s Bush impressions by Dana Carvey.
Television, in fact, now a cornerstone of political campaigning, first weighed into the presidential fray in 1952 when Eisenhower’s “I Like Ike” was featured in one of the first televised political endorsements. It even included a song written by Irving Berlin with animation by Walt Disney Studios. The catchy jingle used the slogan in the lyrics: “You like Ike, I like Ike, everybody likes Ike. Hang out the banner and beat the drum, we’ll take Ike to Washington.” It would serve Eisenhower so well his campaign reused it in his ’56 re-election as “I Still Like Ike.”
It wasn’t the first time songs were employed for campaigns. FDR used “Happy Days Are Here Again” from the 1930 film “Chasing Rainbows,” and Harry Truman’s campaign appropriated the 1921 tune “I’m Just Wild About Harry.” In the past few years, however, candidates attempting to use popular tunes at their rallies have met with cease-and-desist orders from such artists as Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Adele, Neil Young, Queen and Pharrell Williams.
Negative targeted slogans are, unfortunately, part of the campaign world. In 1908 the slogan “Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan anytime” was a slur on William Jennings Bryan’s failed 1896 and 1900 presidential bids. But dating as far back as 1884 Democrats were accused by Republicans of being pro-Confederacy, pro-Catholic immigrants and pro-alcoholic beverages, prompting the Republican slogan: “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion!” Alcohol was also at the forefront of what many historians note as the worst campaign slogan in history…one that may have cost Alfred E. Smith his 1928 Democratic presidential run. With a nod to Smith’s anti-Prohibition stance–which made him a “wet” candidate–the slogan proclaimed, “Vote for Al Smith and Make Your Wet Dreams Come True.”
Should you discover old campaign materials languishing in Grandma’s trunk (as I did with a 1908 campaign postcard for William Jennings Bryan), think twice before tossing it. A 1900 McKinley/Roosevelt button is currently for sale on Ebay for…$1,400!