The Selling of the President 1968 was an important book when it was first published. It revealed to the world many of the marketing methods being used in electoral politics in the television age. Television had been a staple in the American home for almost twenty years by the time of this book. Campaigns had made use of television for some time and had found ways of using television ads to good advantage, but television had not yet become the primary means of selling a candidate such as it is today.
In the current election, for instance, the traditional mailings have slowed to a trickle while television ads--and especially negative television ads--are being used with greater frequency. Millions of dollars are spent by candidates to reach the voter through television, and no one makes any pretense that they are doing other than using the techniques of Madison Avenue to shape their message and to do it in an appealing way. When Joe McGinniss wrote his book, though, the electoral process was only starting to be shaped by television. McGinniss saw the trend developing and wrote about how advertising methods were applied to the campaign of Richard M. Nixon.
McGinniss makes clear in his second chapter that he views the use of TV advertising as a different technique for an old process. He says that politics has always been a con game in a sense:
The American voter, insisting upon his belief in a higher order, clings to his religion, which promises another, better life; and defends passionately the illusion that the men he chooses to lead him are of finer nature than he (26).
The successful politician, says McGinniss, is the one who honors this illusion, and television offers another way of doing this. McGinniss says there is always a difference between the individual and his or her image, and this difference is now being exploited electronically. Advertising is also a con game:
It is not surprising then, that po...