This ad, playing on white resentment about affirmative action, ran during the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Harvey Gantt and Jesse Helms:
Before the ad ran (during the last week of the campaign), Gantt was ahead in the polls. The ad is widely believed to be the reason Helms won.
Might be good to pair with the infamous Willy Horton ad from the 1988 Presidential campaign in a discussion of how images of minorities have been used to frighten white voters.
Comments 3
Jeff — May 8, 2008
On the other hand, despite the scary music there's no real negative imagery except for a hand crumpling a piece of paper. The commercial just explains that one candidate is for affirmative action and one is against. What's wrong with making candidates' issues on policy known? This is absolutely nothing like the Willy Horton Ad, which is reprehensible.
Gwen Sharp, PhD — May 8, 2008
My issue with the ad is that it totally misrepresents how affirmative action works and implies there are quotas that bosses just have to fill, meaning whites have no chance of getting jobs. Quotas are illegal; if your boss tells you s/he "had" to give your job to a minority, you can sue them for using a quota system. I am quite certain Helms knew this; most people don't and assume that's how it works.
Also, the ad was meant to stir up racial fears; the point was to scare whites with the specter of (presumably less qualified) minorities taking their jobs. It's not simply "I oppose affirmative action and my opponent doesn't." The message is "blacks, with the help of the federal government, are going to get your jobs and you won't be able to find any." In that way I think it's similar to the Horton ad--scaring whites with the possibility of being victimized in some way by minorities, with the help of their government.
pj — May 8, 2008
This makes me wish I would have saved the "Angry White Man" email I received months ago. It would have gone great with this post.