The Selling of the President: The Classical Account of the Packaging of a Candidate [Paperback]

Joe McGinniss (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 2, 1988

What makes you cast your ballot?
A Presidential candidate or a good campaign?
How he stands on the issues or how he stands up to the camera?

The Selling of the President is the enduring story of the 1968 campaign that wrote the script for modern Presidential politicking—and how that script came to be. It introduces:

• Harry Treleaven, the first adman to suggest that issues bore voters, that image is what counts
• Roger Ailes, a PR man who coordinated the TV presentations that delivered the product
• Frank Shakespeare, the man behind the whole campaign, who, after eighteen years at CBS, cast the image that sold America a President
• And the candidate, Richard Nixon himself—a politician running on television for the highest office in the land

In his introduction, Joe McGinniss discusses why—unfortunately—his classic book is as pertinent today to understanding our political culture as it was the year it was published.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joe McGinniss was a young Philadelphia journalist when he began to follow the team of public relations men and television specialists who created Richard Nixon's image for the American public during the presidential campaign of 1968. In 1969, with the publication of The Selling of the President, Joe McGinnis immediately became a nonfiction star of the first rank. His other books include Heroes, Going to Extremes, Fatal Vision, Cruel Doubt, and a novel, The Dream Team. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (August 2, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140112405
• ISBN-13: 978-0140112405
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Beginning to Show Its Age May 16, 2000

By John B. Maggiore

Format:Paperback

This is the book that catapulted Joe McGinniss to nearly icon-status at the age of 25 in 1969. At the time, it was a shockingly revealing book at how presidential candidate Richard Nixon was being sold - gasp - like a product. The original book jacket featured Nixon's face on a pack of cigarettes, as if the notion of Madison Avenue ad-men playing a pivotal role in a presidential campaign was dirty.

The book became such a classic that it remains assigned reading in many government classes to this day. But it is no longer shocking. Today, the practices described actually seem backward. Rather than a jarring warning about how campaigns are trading issue discussions for staged events, it today might be read as an out-of-date how to book. The discerning reader should not make this mistake. Instead, try to feel the original sentiment, the innocent expectations the book assumes of the reader.

There are two interesting aspects of this book that are ancillary to the main point. The one is the appearance of political figures, like Pat Buchanan and Roger Ailes, who would go on to other things and remain well known today. The most interesting such example is none other than George Bush (the dad), who is profiled as a mere Congressional candidate, epitomizing the "modern" type of candidate who is "an extremely likable person" but is hazy on the issues. Bush's successful campaign featured "no issues" not even when his opponent asked Bush "if he would favor negotiations...to end the Vietnamese war" (see pages 44-45). The point was that Bush, who wasn't especially well-known, was a vapid product rather than a substantive candidate (some things change, some stay the same).

The other interesting thing is what happened to McGinniss.... You won't read this in the book, but after it was published, McGinniss became a star at a very young age for a while. After the lecture tour, he didn't know what to do as a follow-up, so he started writing a book which eventually was published as "Heroes." After skewering Nixon, presumably the arch-typical villain of McGinniss's political worldview, he wanted to find somebody who inspired him. Predictably, he didn't. But "Heroes" is as much a self-revelatory story about the author's self-disappointment as it actually is about the political subjects of the book. He ends by speculating that only Ted Kennedy came close to heroic status, and that Kennedy would be the subject of his next book. He wasn't. Instead, McGinnis started writing true crime books, many of which were successful. Finally, in 1993 McGinnis came out with "The Last Brother" about Kennedy's fall from hero-status. The book ends in 1969, the year of Chappaquiddick, but also the year "The Selling of the President" was published. As a book about Ted Kennedy, whose career is more interesting after 1969, "The Last Brother" falls far short. As a metaphor about a young man whose career peaked too early (McGinnis), the book is fascinating.

"The Selling of the President" is McGinnis' best, most meaningful book. It stands on its own, and, despite showing considerable signs of age, still stands the test of time. For more updated information on presidential propaganda, read "Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine" by Howard Kurtz, or the excellent "On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency," which itself deserves to be considered a classic. Interestingly, these books discuss presidencies that take what McGinnis is describing, the selling of the presidency, beyond the campaign trail and directly into the White House. Today the "permanent campaign" does not stop selling. Read more ›

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars McGinnis' Trailblazing Look at TV Age Image Crafting. April 26, 2000

By Aaron W.

Format:Paperback

This book is fun and breezy, and is a great companion piece to all those grinding "Making of the President 19--" books. McGinnis shows us the repackaging and rebranding of Richard Nixon into "The New Nixon." The original cover shows Nixon's face on a pack of cigarettes, because the campaign is all about the wholesale mass marketing of a product -- "New" and improved. The sales job is done largely with the help of Roger Ailes, then producer of The Mike Douglas Show. TV ads are shot with endless takes while Nixon stands before an audience and answers planted questions. When Nixon growls or mumbles to himself or snaps "Goddammit!" Ailes yells cut and they try again. Nixon and his production team had learned a big lesson from the five o'clock shadow, shifty eyed debates of 1960. Listen to your handlers, wear the darn makeup, look sincere and stick to the script. This book is a great, funny, fast look at the infancy of TV era politics. It's a nice history lesson, and it will add a fresh perspective to your stock of political knowledge. Today our image consultants are like Star Wars to Nixon's Apollo 7. Still, The Selling of The President stands as the best book on the creation of The Political Image.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stealing from Segretti's Playbook September 3, 2002

By Neil Cotiaux VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

First off, let's get one thing straight: McGinniss infiltrated the Nixon Campaign, pure and simple. Not exactly what you'd call honorable journalism.

That said, "The Selling of the President" remains the definitive case study of the first sophisticated use of television in American Presidential Politics. Having worked in political public relations for three years, the characterizations and quotes ring completely true. While the public was dismayed by the widening morass in Vietnam, there's no denying the fact that Nixon's very astute use of the tube helped catapult him into the office he ultimately disgraced.

Yes, mass media image-building is now the politician's stock in trade: Willy talking boxers versus briefs, the Veep doing the Macarena, and George The Elder fumbling at the checkout counter.

"The Selling of the President 1968" is written in tough, punchy prose, and chillingly accurate. I'm certain The Founding Fathers would flinch.

Highly recommended as a continuing reality check.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars He Makes it Perfectly Clear January 16, 2003

By Acute Observer

Format:Paperback

Joe McGinniss joined the Nixon campaign as an observer, and wrote this book of connected stories. Nixon's team had a number of advertising and TV professionals. The book lacks and index and a table of contents. The cover shows Nixon's face on a pack of cigarettes - an apt metaphor. They are heavily advertised, and bad for you in the short and long run. People know this, but they buy them anyway!

Chapter 1 shows Nixon taping commercials for varied markets. "I pledge an all-out war against organized crime in this country." But investigations into organized crime was later halted. Chapter 2 tells us that politics, like advertising, is a con game! Both promise more than they deliver. McGinniss says Nixon lost in 1960 because the camera portrayed him clearly (p.32). I think the TV audience judge he was lying, the radio audience took him at his word. By 1968 Nixon learned how to act sincere. He would appear mellow, not intense; respected, if not loved (p.34). Page 36 explains how this works: saturated TV advertising showing the candidate and giving the desired impression, followed by public appearances where he doesn't say anything. TV would be controlled to transmit the best images (p.38). Chapter 3 tells about Harry Treleaven, who worked on the 1966 campaign for George Bush; he was elected because he was likeable, and none knew his stand on the issues. More people vote for emotional than logical reasons (p.45). Chapter 4 explains the power of TV. "The press doesn't matter anymore: (p.59). Painting Nixon as mellow was their way to overcome the old Nixon. Chapter 5 tells how the TV shows were staged for each region. Page 64 explains the politics for a panel of questioners. The selected audience applauded every answer.... Chapter 6 says that if Nixon could not act warmer they would produce commercials that made him so!

Chapter 7 tells how a commercial would "create a Nixon image that was entirely independent of the words" (p.85). "The secret is in the juxtaposition" (p.88). (Was this parodied in that scene in "The Parallax View"?) Once complaint was of a picture of a soldier who had scrawled "LOVE" on his helmet; a new picture was found with a plain helmet. Later they received a letter from that soldier's mother - Mrs William Love (p.92)! Page 99 tells why you never saw a farmer on this show. Or a psychiatrist (p.100)! Chapter 9 gives an insider's view to the commercial images and what they meant. Chapter 10 tells of seeking Wallace voters with a ballad. Another trick was to be seen as a friend of Billy Graham. Chapter 11 tells of Nixon's shrinking lead. How could a slick production lose to a rough-edged show? Chapter 12 rates a Humphrey commercial as "contrived and tasteless" (p.138), but also "most effective" since it showed HHH as a real person in open air, not being kept in a TV studio. Chapter 13 explains how a TV show worked. People would call in with questions; these would be passed to the staff. They would be scrapped, and prepared questions and their answers used (p.149).

The Appendix contains various memos from the campaign; relevant extracts from "Understanding Media" and its analysis. Page 187 notes the good appeal of "reagan". Reagan's personal charisma is noted on plage 189. Pages 218-220 explain the benefits of print advertising over TV. Page 233 mentions the strategy of a challenger: the candidate stands for change (you assume what that means). These memos concern Nixon's run, but are applicable to other candidates today. How much has changed since 1968? Read more ›