In 1984, Ronald Reagan was losing his reelection campaign.
His first debate was a failure — nay, a disaster — because he repeatedly lost his train of thought, stalling and stuttering through his answers. Political commentators said Reagan, the so-called “Great Communicator,” sounded confused, lost.
American voters agreed: after the debate, his poll numbers plummeted.
Something had to be done, fast.
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So Reagan’s team went to Madison Avenue, where Hal Riney, copywriter and partner at Publicis & Hal Riney, pitched a commercial he thought would promote the idea of Reagan.
Back then, he called it: Prouder, Stronger, Better.
Now, the spot is referred to simply as: Morning in America.
The ad leaned heavily on a copywriting technique called Future Pacing, which works to demonstrate what life will be like with, or without, a product. (And to be clear, The President is a product.)
For example:
Consider this line during the wedding scene: “...they can look forward, with confidence, to the future.”
This line explicitly calls out the future. But Future Pacing can also be accomplished more subtly, any time the audience hears or reads words like:
“will...”
“imagine...”
“picture this...”
Consciously or otherwise, the commercial was made to make voters feel good about themselves and their circumstances. It was also designed to conjure hope, a hopeful spirit.
And it did.
The commercial was unique for its time, calming, assuring. It garnered an enormous amount of positive attention, and singlehandedly shifted the conversation away from the present and onto the future.
Did it win the presidency for Reagan? In a way, yes: many say he used the momentum it created to overtake the election.
And now I’m sharing this spot because it’s Future Pacing at its finest and most effective: an excellent example of what can happen when you remind your prospects of what tomorrow holds with your product in it:
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