Doug Ford clearly subscribes to Adlai Stevenson’s maxim: “If they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.”
It’s unlikely Ontario’s premier and the one-time U.S. presidential nominee ever met: Stevenson slipped the mortal coil when Ford was still in nappies, somewhere in deepest Etobicoke. But has Ford ever had a late-night encounter with the waifish ghost of Stevenson in the stately halls of Queen’s Park? Likely. Almost certain.
Ford’s ad featuring Ronald Reagan tilting against tariffs, in his modulated, resonate baritone, is straight out of the Adlai Stevenson ad playbook: it tells the truth, and nothing but the truth, and it works.
Ford scrummed about it the other day, andhe told my colleague Brian Lilleyhis 60-second spot was “the most successful ad in the history of North America.” That may be a bit of an overstatement, but not by much. The resulting Lilley-Ford exchange is one for the ages, like Ali-Holmes, but with less bloodshed.
“If this is the most successful ad in North American history, what does failure look like?” a bemused Lilley hollered at Ford after Question Period.
“I’ll tell you, Brian, that we had over a billion impressions around the world, and what we did, we generated a conversation that wasn’t happening in the U.S.,” Ford said, without breaking stride.
“Now, every single local media, every large media, medium-sized media, in the U.S. is talking about it. So is every governor, senator and congressman and woman, not only nationally, but statewide. And the message was very clear, protectionism does not work.”
Not everyone agreed. Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser, now in contention for the Stupidest Political Critique of 2025, said Ford concocted the now-legendary ad to “make him look good,” and that it was “doing damage.”
But that’s the point of political advertising, Johnny: to do damage. Trust me on this – I’ve actually written a book about political advertising (The War Room, now in its third printing and helpfully available at all fine booksellers near you, etc. Remember Christmas/Hannukah is coming, folks.)
I named my political consulting firm after the best political ad of all time – sorry, Doug, but it is – which is simply called “Daisy.” It begins quietly, with a little girl picking petals off, well, a daisy. The ad abruptly changes mid-way, and concludes with President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s voice, over footage of a nuclear bomb going off: “These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark.” Pause. “We must either love each other or we must die.”
An announcer’s voice is heard over a black screen: “Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd. The stakes are too high for you to stay home.”
Boom. More than Reagan’s 1984 “Morning In America” ad, more than George H. W. Bush’s 1988 “Willie Horton” ad, the “Daisy” ad was, and is, the best. It scared voters away from the hawkish and Trumpian Republican nominee, Barry Goldwater, in droves, and Johnson won by a landslide – out of 50 states, the Democrat took 44. Because of an ad that ran once, during Monday Night at the Movies.
That, of course, is why Donald Trump came apart like a cheap firecracker about Ford’s ad: like Daisy, it was simple, it was compelling, and it was true. Reagan opposed tariffs, and he said so often. Ford simply quoted him.
By freaking out about the ad, Trump make the rookiest of all rookie mistakes: he convinced people to go looking for it, including the many who hadn’t seen it yet. It’s my car crash analogy: nobody will say they like car crashes, but they all slow down to take a look, don’t they? Same with tough political ads like Ford’s. They look.
Years ago, I interviewed the quiet, thoughtful ad guy who devised the Daisy ad, Tony Schwartz. “A political ad is about things that are important to the people,” Schwartz told me, at the New York home that he almost never left. The spot worked because it asked the question that was on everyone’s mind back in ’64, Schwartz said: “Whose finger do I want on the nuclear trigger? The man who wants to use them, or the man who doesn’t?”
A simple proposition, in other words, simply stated. That’s why Doug Ford’s ad did boffo box office: do you want tariffs that’ll make everything way more expensive for you, yes or no?
Peering down from their heavenly perch, Adlai Stevenson and Lyndon Baines Johnson – and Ronald Reagan – are probably having a good old chuckle about Donald Trump’s hissy fit.
Truth hurts, don’t it, Donnie?
Looks good on you, you jerk.
