This commercial is part of the Living Room Candidate, an online archive of presidential campaign commercials by Museum of the Moving Image. To see more than 500 presidential campaign commercials from every election from 1952 through the present, visit livingroomcandidate.org
Revolving Door | George Bush, 1988
This stark and unsettling ad from the Bush campaign doesn't mention the notorious escaped convict William Horton by name. (Although he went by William, the Bush campaign referred to him by the less respectable name “Willie”). However, with its release just a few weeks after the independently financed ad "Willie Horton" had generated controversy and national press coverage, the connection was clear. Under the direction of campaign manager Roger Ailes, Dukakis was linked with the case of the African American felon who fled Massachusetts during a weekend furlough and and attacked a young white couple in Maryland. Focus groups conducted in Paramus, New Jersey, in May showed a strong emotional reaction to the failed furlough system, and Bush decided to make this a key issue in the campaign, attacking Dukakis in a speech as "a tax-raising liberal who let murderers out of jail." Because of their strong imagery and underlying racial message, "Willie Horton" and "Revolving Door" received substantial coverage on TV news programs during the final month of the campaign. “I realized I started a trend,” said Ailes. “Now guys are out there trying to produce commercials for the evening news.” The creator of the "Willie Horton" ad, Floyd Brown, also made attack ads against John Kerry in 2004.
Credits:
"Revolving Door," Bush-Quayle '88, 1988
Maker: Dennis Frankenberry and Roger Ailes
Original air date: 10/03/88
Video courtesy of the George Bush Presidential Library.