Liking Ike

Eisenhower, Advertising, and the Rise of Celebrity Politics

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, History & Theory, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century, Social Science
Cover of the book Liking Ike by David Haven Blake, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Haven Blake ISBN: 9780190278205
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: July 28, 2016
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: David Haven Blake
ISBN: 9780190278205
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: July 28, 2016
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Liking Ike reveals the prominent role that celebrities and advertising agencies played in Dwight Eisenhower's presidency. Guided by Madison Avenue executives and television pioneers, Eisenhower cultivated famous supporters as a way of building the broad-based support that had eluded Republicans for twenty years. While we often think of John F. Kennedy and his Rat Pack entourage as the beginning of presidential glamour in the United States, celebrities from Ethel Merman and Irving Berlin to Jimmy Stewart and Helen Hayes regularly appeared in Eisenhower's campaigns. Ike's political career was so saturated with stardom that opponents from the right and left accused him of being a glamour candidate. Author David Haven Blake tells the story of how Madison Avenue executives strategically brought celebrities into the political process. Based on original interviews and long neglected archival materials, Liking Ike explores the changing dynamics of celebrity politics as Americans adjusted to the television age. By the 1920s, entertainers were routinely drawing publicity to their favorite candidates, but with the rise of television and mass advertising, political advisers began to professionalize the way that celebrities brought attention to presidential campaigns. In meetings, memos, and television scripts, they charted a strategy for leavening political programming with celebrity interviews, musical performances, and elaborate television spectaculars. Commentators worried about the seemingly superficial values that television had introduced to political campaigns, and writers, filmmakers, and fellow politicians criticized the influence of glamour and publicity. But despite these complaints, Eisenhower's legacy would live on in the subsequent careers of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan-and, ultimately, provide a template for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, John McCain, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Liking Ike reveals the prominent role that celebrities and advertising agencies played in Dwight Eisenhower's presidency. Guided by Madison Avenue executives and television pioneers, Eisenhower cultivated famous supporters as a way of building the broad-based support that had eluded Republicans for twenty years. While we often think of John F. Kennedy and his Rat Pack entourage as the beginning of presidential glamour in the United States, celebrities from Ethel Merman and Irving Berlin to Jimmy Stewart and Helen Hayes regularly appeared in Eisenhower's campaigns. Ike's political career was so saturated with stardom that opponents from the right and left accused him of being a glamour candidate. Author David Haven Blake tells the story of how Madison Avenue executives strategically brought celebrities into the political process. Based on original interviews and long neglected archival materials, Liking Ike explores the changing dynamics of celebrity politics as Americans adjusted to the television age. By the 1920s, entertainers were routinely drawing publicity to their favorite candidates, but with the rise of television and mass advertising, political advisers began to professionalize the way that celebrities brought attention to presidential campaigns. In meetings, memos, and television scripts, they charted a strategy for leavening political programming with celebrity interviews, musical performances, and elaborate television spectaculars. Commentators worried about the seemingly superficial values that television had introduced to political campaigns, and writers, filmmakers, and fellow politicians criticized the influence of glamour and publicity. But despite these complaints, Eisenhower's legacy would live on in the subsequent careers of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan-and, ultimately, provide a template for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, John McCain, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Color in the Classroom by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Angels in the Machinery by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Public Governance and the Classical-Liberal Perspective by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Groove Music by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book In Brown's Wake by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Horace: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Far from the Madding Crowd Level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Populist Authoritarianism by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Social Work and Social Welfare by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book The Astaires by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Ecological Orbits by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book The Hypothetical Mandarin by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book Foreign Accents by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas by David Haven Blake
Cover of the book The Promise of the New South by David Haven Blake
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy