Nixon Uses The Ludovico Technique
Nixon’s creepy, surreal attack ad on presidential hopeful Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
The 1968 presidential elections were in full swing, with Republican hopeful Richard Nixon taking on Hubert Humphrey, then vice-president under Lyndon B. Johnson.
In this bizarre attack ad, Nixon’s campaigners seemed to try to plant suggestions in our brain: Humphrey is bad! Humphrey means violence! Look at these images of starving kids and bombs! (Think A Clockwork Orange, when Alex is forced to associate images of death and depravity with his beloved Ludwig van Beethoven). It worked–Nixon took office in 1969, and almost made it through two terms. But that’s not the worst thing Nixon did to win a campaign…
