Opinion: 5 Tony 4 Schwartz 3 who 2 made 1 famous 0 nuclear daisy ad dies

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Tony Schwartz, who made the famous Elect Lyndon Johnson ‘daisy ad’ among many other political statements, died over the weekend at the age of 84.

The controversial ad -- which did not name, but was aimed at feeding war fears and uncertainty about, Johnson’s opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona -- was, like the 1988 Willie Horton TV commercial for George H. W. Bush, only broadcast one time: during NBC’s Monday Night Movies in 1964.

But that was enough to send shock waves through the election’s politics at the time. Ironically, Johnson’s alleged anti-war ad helped create a resounding election victory that led him to escalate the Vietnam War. The resulting social and political turmoil of the late ‘60s and a re-energizing of conservatives went on to produce seven Republican White House wins, to three for the Democrats.

A recluse in Manhattan, Schwartz produced thousands of commercials over the years with clients such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Coca-Cola and Chrysler as well as anti-smoking ads.

As the little girl counted daisy petals, the ominous loudspeaker voice of someone counting down to zero led to the terrifying blast sound of the nuclear bomb.

As the menacing sound rumbled through TV sets across the nation, the voice of President Johnson could be heard intoning, ‘These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.’

Obviously, everyone didn’t die. And everything worked out just swell after this ad. In 1968 internal Democratic Party strife forced Johnson to give up any hope of a second elected term. His vice president, Hubert Humphrey, lost to Richard Nixon, who had no political problems except maybe becoming the first president ever forced to resign.

Goldwater never did reach the White House, but his political disciples reorganized around someone named Ronald Reagan, who had some electoral success.

And it took 44 more years for another Arizonan to make a serious bid to become president.

-- Andrew Malcolm