President Reagan's evocative re-election campaign ads were created by the Tuesday Team, an all-star group of advertising executives including Hal Riney, Philip Dusenberry, and Jerry Della Femina. The Reagan campaign made it clear to the team that they wanted something more effective and memorable than the straightforward "hard sell" ads of the 1980 campaign. The result was an inspiring series of picturesque ads collectively known as "Morning in America." With brightly lit montages of idyllic scenes of suburban life and swelling music, the ads evoked a Norman Rockwell vision of the country, suggesting that President Reagan had restored American optimism. By asking, “Do we really want to go back to where we were four short years ago?" the ads also gently attacked the Democratic candidate, former Vice President Walter Mondale, by linking him to the Jimmy Carter presidency. The voice of Hal Riney, who narrates the ad, is familiar from many commercials, for cars, insurance companies, and other products. According to Dusenberry, when Reagan was introduced to the Tuesday Team, he said, "I understand you guys are selling soap. I thought you'd like to see the bar." The "Morning in America" ads were run in heavy saturation early in the year, during Reagan's uncontested primary run, to set the tone for the rest of the campaign.
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President Obama won reelection in 2012 despite weak economic conditions. The economic collapse of 2008 resulted in soaring unemployment rates that have been as high as 10%, and remained at more than 8% through most of 2012; this is the highest unemployment rate since the 1982 recession. The state of the U.S. economy was the dominant issues, with Barack Obama’s campaign arguing that the president has taken action to rescue the economy and turn it in the right direction, and Mitt Romney’s campaign arguing that the recovery isn't happening quickly enough. In an election year marked by a troubled economy and low public approval of the government, it was not surprising that the tenor of the ad campaign was extremely negative. With total spending by the official campaigns and outside “Super PAC” groups expected to reach more than one billion dollars, there has been a deluge of negative ads. Well more than 75% of all presidential campaign ads in 2012 were negative.
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