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06/20/2004: "The Greatest Political Ad Copy Ever Written"

music: Marching band
mood: Upbeat as hell

This is, of course, political season where lies are the staple of the day. Regardless of your
political bent or how you plan to vote (and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn) one thing is for sure.
Copywriters like myself are writing copy to make their clients sound like god-sent angels.

But the best ad copy for a politician ever written, thus far, is the one below. Forget Iran-Contra and everything else. Just see the good. Ah yes --- duh.

The copy:

It's morning again in America.

Today, more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 1980, nearly 2,000 families today will buy new homes, more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon, 6,500 young men and women will be married, and with inflation at less than half of what it was just four short years ago, they can look forward with confidence to the future.

It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?

---

That, the work of the ad hoc Tuesday Team in Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, is probably the greatest political ad of modern times.

As Advertising Age says about the type of ad, "It worked then -- Reagan trounced Mondale -- and 20 years later it resonates still. No coincidence that half the media were making the same grim pun. Morning in America wasn't just an ad; it was a utopia. And, especially in these troubled times -- when political advertising consists overwhelmingly of ad hominem attacks by liars -- who doesn't want to remember that?"

And so it goes.