NEWSLETTER
LivingRoomCandidate.org, a project of Museum of the Moving Image, offers a video archive of presidential campaign commercials from 1952 through 2020
New York, New York, September 30, 2020 — The Living Room Candidate (livingroomcandidate.org), an online exhibition of more than 400 campaign commercials from every presidential race since the inception of television campaign advertising in 1952, is now live with ads from the 2020 election cycle of Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden. The launch of new videos is accompanied by a scholarly essay about the history of campaign advertising and, on October 15, an online discussion with media scholars about the roots of political advertising in the United States.
Acclaimed as “addictive” (The New York Times) and “the finest collection of presidential campaign ads ever assembled” (Wall Street Journal), The Living Room Candidate has served as an important, free resource for journalists, scholars, teachers, and students nationwide since it was first published online in 2000. The Living Room Candidate is organized and hosted by Museum of the Moving Image on its website. For the 2020 edition, the site has been reformatted with an updated video player, allowing for improved accessibility and sharing of videos.
The essay, “Hitting the Spot: How TV Advertising Remade American Politics,” written by The Living Room Candidate’s Consulting Curator Kathryn Cramer Brownell, explores the technological and ideological parallels between today's campaign and the 1952 Eisenhower campaign, and has been posted on Reverse Shot, the Museum’s online publication devoted to film criticism and other forms of moving image scholarship. Brownell is associate professor of history at Purdue University and author of Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life. In addition to the essay, Brownell will maintain a complementary blog with analysis of and insights into the use of political advertising in the 2020 campaign.
On October 15 at 7:00 p.m. E.T., MoMI will host “The Living Room Candidate: Political Advertising in the 2020 Presidential Campaign,” a live online panel discussion about the 2020 election in the context of the history of political advertising in the United States, moderated by Brownell and featuring experts in media, politics, and history. Guests include Nadia E. Brown, University Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Purdue University; Leo Chavez, Professor at Stanford University and author of several books about immigration narratives in the media; Nicole Hemmer, associate research scholar with the Obama Presidency Oral History project, and the author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics; and David Schwartz, Manager of Theatrical Programming, Netflix, and former Chief Curator, MoMI, who is the founding curator of The Living Room Candidate. For more information and to register for this free event, visit movingimage.us.
The 2020 edition of The Living Room Candidate has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.
Top image: 2020 election page on The Living Room Candidate / courtesy of Museum of the Moving Image.
About the Consulting Curator Kathryn Cramer Brownell
Kathryn Cramer Brownell is associate professor of history at Purdue University. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections between media, politics, and popular culture, with a particular emphasis on the American presidency. Her first book, Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in American Political Life (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), examines the institutionalization of entertainment styles and structures in American politics and the rise of the celebrity presidency. She is now working on a new book project on the political history of cable television.
About Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum's mission is to advance the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. Despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the building closed since March 14, the Museum continues to fulfill its mission online through live conversations with artists, filmmakers, scholars, media educators, and other industry professionals; articles published in MoMI's online film magazine Reverse Shot and science and film resource Sloan Science & Film; access to the Museum's collection of more than 130,000 objects; and the online presentation of a range of films—including acclaimed new release features and award-winning science shorts, plus archived video of Museum events, and more. In August 2020, the Museum co-created the Queens Drive-In, in partnership with Rooftop Films and New York Hall of Science, to revive communal moviegoing in a safe environment. For more information, visit movingimage.us. Follow MoMI on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Press contact: Tomoko Kawamoto, tkawamoto@movingimage.us.
PRESS IMAGES ARE AVAILABLE HERE (USER: press / PW: images).
Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and has received significant support from the following public agencies: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York City Council; New York City Economic Development Corporation; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Institute of Museum and Library Services; National Endowment for the Humanities; National Endowment for the Arts; and Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation).