An Infamous Attack Ad Just Got an AI Resurrection
In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign ran a terrifying 60-second advertisement. It opens with a three-year-old girl in a field, pulling petals off a daisy while counting to ten. Then, a man’s voice begins a countdown, and a nuclear explosion fills the screen. The advertisement only aired once, but roughly 100 million people saw it. […]
In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign aired a chilling 60-second advertisement that depicted a three-year-old girl in a field counting petals from a daisy. Suddenly, a man's voice began a countdown, followed by a nuclear explosion on screen. The ad only aired once, yet roughly 100 million people witnessed it. The message was clear: Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater, was a warmonger who would endanger American children and lead to nuclear Armageddon.
Johnson won the election in a landslide, making the daisy video America's most infamous attack ad. Now, a Super PAC supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Senate campaign is using an AI-generated, altered version of Johnson's video to take a different stance. In this new version, the daisy girl, resurrected via generative AI, lies on an operating table in front of an AI-generated Texas Representative James Talarico.
A narrator says, "She dreams of growing up, falling in love, becoming a mother. The trans industry preys on confused children." The Talarico campaign asserts that James Talarico does not support gender reassignment surgery for minors and that the ad is a "flat out lie." This isn't the first AI advertisement the Paxton allies have produced; another aired in June showing an AI-generated Talarico dancing in a dress and singing a parody of "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music," altered to promote giving girls hormones.
Attorney General Paxton's campaign, backed by the American Principles Project, a group known for pushing anti-trans laws, has spent $10 million on this ad. The group aims to ban not just gender-affirming care for children but also medical care for trans people of all ages. The original "daisy girl" ad was effective because it instilled fear, urging parents to protect their children from an unthinkable fate.
However, previous attempts to remix the daisy video, such as Bob Dole's 1996 version addressing teenage drug use and Hillary Clinton's attempt in 2016, have not succeeded. The AI-generated daisy girl on an operating table, while terrifying, poses a manufactured threat rather than a real one, making the campaign's message less compelling.
Written by urgent.news from Mother Jones's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
