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The
American public got its first inside look at a presidential ad campaign
with the publication of "The Selling of the President." Joe McGinnis,
at the time a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, asked for and
received unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Nixon advertising
team. His account shocked many with its details of the careful crafting
of Richard Nixon's image.
Roger
Ailes, who would later gain notoriety for his aggressive 1988 media
campaign for George Bush, is quoted as saying in November of 1968 "This
is the beginning of a whole new concept. This is it. This is the way
they'll be elected forevermore. The next guys up will have to be performers."
Nixon
won a close election over Hubert Humphrey and third-party candidate
George Wallace. McGinnis had originally approached the Humphrey campaign
for his book, and they turned him down. But he contends his story would
be very much the same no matter which side he followed.
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