12pt9<p><a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Bales2023FilmChallenge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bales2023FilmChallenge</span></a> March 21: Countdown on <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/NationalCountdownDay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NationalCountdownDay</span></a></p><p>[SPOILER WARNING BELOW]</p><p><a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Peace" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Peace</span></a>, little girl aka Daisy aka Daisy Girl was the <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/PoliticalAd" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PoliticalAd</span></a> campaign to end all ad campaigns. It opens innocently enough with a little blonde girl, picking the petals of an ox-eye <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/daisy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>daisy</span></a> while counting. When the final petal's gone, the tone changes completely*</p><p>This deceptively simple <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/propaganda" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>propaganda</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>film</span></a> was made in support of Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign by ad agency <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/DBB" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DBB</span></a> and media consultant <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/TonySchwartz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TonySchwartz</span></a>. It was so effective and bleak in is insinuations that the Johnson campaign was forced to pull it after only one screening.</p><p>What fascinates me is the similarity with one particular scene from James Whale's Frankenstein (1931). The Monster (<a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Karloff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Karloff</span></a>) meets a little girl who sits on the shore of a lake, picking daisies. He approaches her, and the girl, knowing the creature is a good man at heart, invites him to play a game with her involving them tossing the daisies into the lake. <spoiler>When they run out of daisies, the Monster picks up the girl who to him is as pretty and innocent as a flower, and throws her into the water.</spoiler>.</p><p>This scene was cut and considered lost until the 1980s. Could Tony Schwartz have been aware of that scene? He was at the right age to have seen the pre-code, pre-cut version.</p><p>*Peace, little girl is deceptively simple and only a minute long. However, do watch it on a sunny day: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01185386" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="">loc.gov/item/mbrs01185386</span><span class="invisible"></span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>film</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/cinema" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cinema</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/propaganda" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>propaganda</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/elections" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>elections</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/LyndonBJohnson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LyndonBJohnson</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/BarryGoldwater" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BarryGoldwater</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/ColdWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ColdWar</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Vietnam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Vietnam</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/VietnamWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>VietnamWar</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>politics</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/FilMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FilMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/CineMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CineMastodon</span></a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/film" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>film</span></a></span> <a href="https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bale</span><span class="invisible">s2023filmchallenge/</span></a></p>