ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.03 - JUNE 2000

Election Fraud
(continued from page 1)

Roosevelt’s rugged image is played up in "The Champion Rough Rider of the World." Political cartoon by Albert W. Steele (1898).

The New Presidential Image
On the other hand, over the next few years Presidents were recognizably animated, especially after Steven Spielberg got into the cartoon game. Not only did Bill Clinton play the sax for the enjoyment of Wakko, Yakko and Dot Warner, but rivals such as Ross Perot got the ink-and-paint treatment as well. Spielberg was following the Warners tradition of celebrity caricature and these actions certainly did nothing to damage or belittle the Presidency. Today’s Presidential candidates do the late night talk show circuit, yakking it up with ex-comedians. Besides, from the halls of the Hasty Pudding Club to the set of Saturday Night Live, the Oval Office has been the subject of hearty lampoonery for decades. How could a simple animated spot with a positive spin on the candidate hurt any ambitious pol? No, the reasons we seek must lie elsewhere.

Well, if not the candidates themselves perhaps the bugaboos are the Presidential campaign platforms and the weighty decisions we are asked to make about them. One should be well-informed, take these national issues seriously, and then make sensible and sober choices for the good of one’s country, right? This stance still does not preclude an animated pitch. Didn’t the public respond to such crucial matters as supporting the nation during WWII...even when it was Bugs Bunny who enjoined us to buy war bonds? What about the response from the American people when they were asked to pay their income taxes...by Donald Duck? According to Time magazine 37% of those questioned after seeing the Donald Duck short The New Spirit (1942) said that the film increased their willingness to pay "Taxes...to beat the Axis!" It has been reported that after these two spots hit the theaters during the war years Americans bought more bonds and paid their taxes in greater numbers than ever. John McCain and Bill Bradley should have had such luck.

Any contention that animation and politics simply don’t belong in the same boat to D.C. can also be dented, if not seriously damaged, by that old fave of Gen X, Schoolhouse Rock. It was proven to thousands of children and parents that the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, female suffrage, and the passing of bills into law were fitting subjects for animated discourse. If government, civics, and political history can be taught in such a sprightly and memorable manner (Schoolhouse Rock has remained a favorite through five Presidencies), why can’t candidates and their issues be as indelibly presented?

Here Roosevelt has a flag draped around him, looking convinced that he is in fact heroic. Political cartoon entitled "I am Heroic" by Rollin Kirby (1916).
Uncle Sam molds himself a center spot in the world of political cartoons. "Strictly In It" by Cunningham (1909).

Just Plain Silly
My "devil’s advocate" arguments against animated election spots are growing fewer, but are not yet exhausted. A final rationale might be that the political realities of a Presidential election call for more reserve and dignity than a cartoon spot could lend them. This is also nonsense, since there has been no shortage of tasteless and embarrassing live spots over the years. Does anyone remember the 1964 Johnson campaign ads in which a vote for Goldwater equaled blowing up a little girl in a nuclear explosion? Or the hilarious spot aired during 1988 in which candidate Michael Dukakis, arrayed in full battle gear, sheepishly poked his preppy head out of a tank? Anyone who remembers the 1968 election campaign will recall the efforts put forth by Frank Shakespeare and Roger Ailes of the Nixon campaign team, brilliantly described by Joe McGiniss in his book The Selling of the President 1968. It was they and their associates who presented us with one flag-draped Rockwellian campaign spot after another, proudly showing This Great Nation and Its People while an unseen Nixon droned uninspired platitudes in the background. This sort of presentation has become so cliché that the Cartoon Network was able to do a sidesplitting parody of them for their Cartoon Campaign 2000. It is uncertain if Ailes (who is now on the Bush team) could have gotten Scooby-Doo into the Oval Office, but one thing is certain -- the Nixon spots were little more than hollow shills, more fit for selling lawn care products or smoked turkey than our national leader. If dignity was the point, these ads fell far short.

All right, then, let’s admit it. There are no good reasons why animation can’t be used to promote candidates, and it is in fact negligence on the part of campaign handlers that keeps the animated election spot off our screens. What these sultans of spin don’t seem to realize is, an important tool is being discarded almost without consideration. In issue 4.8 of Animation World Magazine(November, 1999), I noted in my column, "Toons in Training," that animation is a powerful medium for training because information which is encoded in novel form tends to gain more attention, reinforces verbal messages and results in better memory retention. These are neuropsychological facts and are not likely to be altered by the so-called gravity of a Presidential election. The candidate is robbed of a powerful campaign tool, the animation industry misses a chance to demonstrate its powers in a new medium of advertising, and the electorate loses out on the possibility of examining a candidate’s platform through a novel mode of presentation. Talk about government waste!

Ah, but what might have been! Would it not have been entertaining, at least, to have turned on the TV and seen the following (with all due apologies to Dave Frishberg and Schoolhouse Rocky):

I’m just a Bush
Yes, I’m only a Bush
Can’t you give my campaign a push?
Well, it’s a long, long journey
To Pennsylvania Ave
It’s a long, long wait
For those votes I’ve gotta have,
But I know I’ll be the Prez someday...

Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman is a longtime student and fan of animation. He lives in Anderson, Indiana.

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