"NIXON-AGNEW", in red and in blue.

May 15, 2008 6:49 PM

United States election logos, 2008-1960.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (84 comments total)

Given the title: Obligatory Mefi Zork reference
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:54 PM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Worst one: Alan Keyes, 1996. It's a key. Get it?
posted by autodidact at 6:55 PM on May 15, 2008

Shittiness runner up: Howard Dean, 2004. I wouldn't put that on a fucking website.
posted by autodidact at 6:56 PM on May 15, 2008

I don't think the Dean one was a logo, per se... I think that was the lawn sign version.
posted by Poolio at 6:58 PM on May 15, 2008

Best ones: "President Nixon." from '72, Gary Hart's RoboCop-stylee from '84, the very presidential Chris Dodd '08, and Tom "V for Vendetta" Vilsack '08.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:02 PM on May 15, 2008

Not as bad as Hartke, 1972, autodidact. It's a heart key. Get it?
posted by darksasami at 7:03 PM on May 15, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Anderson/Lucey looks like a soft drink logo.
posted by phunniemee at 7:13 PM on May 15, 2008

One president actually won without red/blue.

Jimmy Carter, the man who wasn't good enough at covering up his weapons deals.
posted by sonic meat machine at 7:24 PM on May 15, 2008

I never understood why Kerry ditched the pretty good design he had for the primary with the darker blue and the little stylized flag icon and replaced it with the really lame Kerry/Edwards version with a washed out blue and generic clip-art flag. But then I never understood much of what the campaign did.
posted by octothorpe at 7:26 PM on May 15, 2008

Alan Keyes: Not afraid to use Comic Sans.
posted by jtron at 7:26 PM on May 15, 2008

Oddly, they're missing the black oval 'W' stickers from 2004. Those were nicely done.
posted by suckerpunch at 7:26 PM on May 15, 2008

Excellent find, goodnews!
posted by Dizzy at 7:32 PM on May 15, 2008

McCarthy ’68 looks ripped from a cigarette package.
posted by ijoshua at 7:34 PM on May 15, 2008

Love the 70's font with the line through the middle. SO 70's.
posted by GuyZero at 7:39 PM on May 15, 2008

Anderson/Lucey looks like a soft drink logo.

Obama's logo sorta reminds me of Pepsi's logo.
posted by Poolio at 7:53 PM on May 15, 2008

Could be an omission, but I guess his campaign never really got off the ground. Or out from underneath it.
posted by tula at 7:57 PM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Interesting factoid: McCain's font is Optima, which is the same font used in the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

While McCain's logo, designed by Fredericksburg, Va., firm Spire Communications, isn't beautifully wrought like Obama's, it does make a strong point. With a star -- a naval star according to Ivy Eckerman, Spire's president -- impaled on a gold bar, the logo clearly recalls military insignia. And that, after all, is what McCain is selling: his war hero credentials. Bierut points out that the typeface is Optima, "blunt and ugly," and the same one that's used to spell out the names on the Vietnam Memorial. This clever kinship couldn't be a coincidence, but Spire creative director Steven Pena claims that it is: "We'd like to take credit for this but we can't."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:58 PM on May 15, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

1976: Ford|Dole perfectly captures the humorless ubiquity of modern corporatist Republicanism. Politics as the ultimate branding exercise.

Contrast that with '64's LBJ/USA and the half-scowling, half-grinning gaze of that old bastard peeking out at you. Its the look of inevitability.
posted by Chrischris at 8:03 PM on May 15, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

The Cranston one looks like the label for an over the counter analgesic.

"Cranston has been proven to work more effectively on your normal daily aches and pains than the other candidate."
posted by chimaera at 8:05 PM on May 15, 2008

Interesting how Carter won despite having a green sticker. He seems so against the grain.
posted by madh at 8:06 PM on May 15, 2008

Goldwater is one chiseled jaw handsome son of a bitch.
posted by clearly at 8:11 PM on May 15, 2008

The Joe Biden and Ron Paul logos use a left single-quote instead of an apostrophe before the 08. The designer for Duncan Hunter's logo noticed that was wrong, but apparently went with an upside-down left single-quote instead of an apostrophe. I wonder if people were paid to design those or if they just had a regular staffer whip them up.
posted by stopgap at 8:28 PM on May 15, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

They still use drop shadows in 2008?
posted by netbros at 8:29 PM on May 15, 2008

The 1996 Gore/Clinton ones were interesting for two very different reasons. One is that the standard sign appears to be the first appearance of a website address.

The other is that they had a sign spelling out C-L-I-N-T-O-N G-O-R-E in sign language. You know, for all those people who can read sign language, but not actually read. What the hell?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:38 PM on May 15, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

My favorites are the ones that just have the candidate's name with an exclamation point.

ColdChef!
posted by ColdChef at 8:45 PM on May 15, 2008

And "Sharpton 2004" is the absolute worst. C'mon. Couldn't they even make it purple?
posted by ColdChef at 8:47 PM on May 15, 2008

"Brownback for President"
No year, plus there's tons of extra space where you can take notes.
posted by ColdChef at 8:51 PM on May 15, 2008

I like the one that says

President Nixon.

Poster deep dish.
posted by Deep Dish at 9:04 PM on May 15, 2008

"BOB DOLE. President."

80s logo design
posted by Electrius at 9:15 PM on May 15, 2008

Nice find, goodnews.

Kinda surprising (or... maybe not, I guess) how little these things have changed over the decades.

Gotta love the Ashbrook ("Responsible Republican") from 1972, with the little "no left turn" graphic. He wouldn't have steered us wrong! And Johnson's 1960 "LBJ"-emblazoned Stetson, that's a good 'un. "We're on the way with HUMPHREY", also from '60, is kinda pathetic (and the only orange out of the bunch). But my fave is the no-nonsense, excellently proportioned KENNEDY/JOHNSON from 1960.

Also, didn't remember that there was a presidential contender named "Askew" in '84. President Askew! That's priceless.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:15 PM on May 15, 2008

Maybe it's me, but I think 96 seems to have the most original and creative ideas for any given year. 2008 has some decent ones, but mostly they suck. I like Obama and Dodd for '08.

One other thing I noticed is the "wavy" flag design really seemed to have worked for Clinton/Gore in 92, and Bush seemed to have ripped of a similar motif (the sharp bottom vs most of the other wavy flags having smoothness all around).

Gotta love the perennial consistency of Buchanan's designs. And there were a lot of fuckin' "M" candidates in 72: McGovern, McCarthy, Mills, Muskie, McCloskey.

And what's up with the Triple-H of Humphrey in 68?
posted by symbioid at 9:26 PM on May 15, 2008

Hmm, and Bill Richardson's... I keep hearing "The More You Know!"
posted by symbioid at 9:27 PM on May 15, 2008

What the hell's wrong with using drop shadows?
posted by autodidact at 9:28 PM on May 15, 2008

XQUZPHYR - I think the web address is actually a watermark - it's also on Edwards '08, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Carol Moseley Braun, the 2000 Spanish-language Bush one, Dornan, Ross Perot, and, perhaps most anachronistically, the official '84 Reagan/Bush logo. I guess maybe they were going for the time-traveling demographic there? I think this means, though, that the web-savviness winner is actually www.Keyes2000.org (it took me a while to realize that it wasn't actually alankeyes2000.org, though).

Which would explain the Comic Sans, since it was a Tripod site.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 9:36 PM on May 15, 2008

Turn shadow on, tune shadow in, drop shadow out.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:36 PM on May 15, 2008

Needs more heads in jars.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:48 PM on May 15, 2008

XQUZYPHYR:The 1996 Gore/Clinton ones were interesting for two very different reasons. One is that the standard sign appears to be the first appearance of a website address.

I spotted another address earlier: Bush Quayle 92. It's below the top/left Clinton Gore logo. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it says, "4president.org" in some practically illegible font on the bottom right.
posted by RobertFrost at 9:50 PM on May 15, 2008

woops, just read Bridge's comment. Scratch mine.
posted by RobertFrost at 9:52 PM on May 15, 2008

And what's up with the Triple-H of Humphrey in 68?

Hubert Humphrey's middle name was Horatio.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:56 PM on May 15, 2008

4President.org looks to be a website with lots of election logos.

Besides, I don't think Reagan had a website five years before the invention of the World Wide Web.
posted by dirigibleman at 10:15 PM on May 15, 2008

Looking pretty Ingsoc there, Vilsack.

And somehow I only just noticed that John McCain completely ripped off the french fry company for his logo.
posted by queen zixi at 10:21 PM on May 15, 2008

The scary thing is, it's all the same names. Take out every sticker with "Nixon", "Kennedy", "Johnson", "Dole", or "Bush" on it, and the field starts getting a bit sparse. When I was in my 20s I could've voted for a guy who was running for VP the year before I was born!

Hurrah for democratish!
posted by vorfeed at 10:29 PM on May 15, 2008

And what's up with the Triple-H of Humphrey in 68?

It was an era of triple-letter initialisms. We'd had FDR and HST, detoured for a round of golf with Ike, then had JFK vs. RMN. Fate intervened and elevated LBJ, with whom we went all the way, but just once. In '68 we had RFK and HHH competing for the Democratic initialism mantle. After that the fad sort of wore off. Ford was an accidental president, and then as candidate went with his punch one-syllable last name. Carter was "Jimmy", beginning a trend of candidates favoring down-home nicknames. There were a few RWR usages early on, trying to elevate the man who was so saddled with his actor image there had been rumors during the 1980 convention that he and Ford were settling on a "co-Presidency" deal, but he soon came into his own largely thanks to one JWH. Bush "41" didn't want to use his initials because GHWB sort of made it evident he was a four-named New Englander instead of a native Texan. But his son has occasionally been slapped with a GWB or two, at the very least to distinguish the both of them.

Speaking of doppelganger logos, a few people driving past Beloit, Wis. may have been surprised in mid-2004 to see a new sign go up where the Kerry Group had recently purchased a headquarters for its local operations. (Kerry is an Irish company, somewhat unsurprisingly.)
posted by dhartung at 10:56 PM on May 15, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Kennedy 1960 is missing PT109 pins.
posted by Cranberry at 11:15 PM on May 15, 2008

Ugh. (hides head)
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:22 PM on May 15, 2008

Such a lot of logo's with the national flag. In western Europe only far right xenophobic political parties use national flags in logos.

Good post.
posted by jouke at 11:24 PM on May 15, 2008

I think my favorite is the "President Nixon." sticker from 1972. The big period at the end gives a sort of weight to the statement, and carries a lot more weight than the "McGovern" sticker from the same year.

I also really liked the LBJ/USA sticker. I think we should return to the idea of the grainy black-and-white picture of the candidate on the campaign sticker. And I totally agree with Chrischris' sentiment on this.

And does anyone know where I can buy old campaign stickers? I'd really like to drive around with a "Dukakis" or "Lamar!" sticker, just to freak people out.
posted by grandsham at 12:00 AM on May 16, 2008

The big period at the end gives a sort of weight to the statement

In the late 60s and much of the 70s such usage of periods was really trendy. In ad copy, you saw periods after incomplete sentences all the time.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:16 AM on May 16, 2008

Man, that Vilsack logo is awesome.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:30 AM on May 16, 2008

In western Europe only far right xenophobic political parties use national flags in logos

The fact that other countries do things other ways should--perhaps--not surprise you.

As for the campaign logos, it's a symptom of the two-party duopoly and the quick identification in recent years of the two parties' main candidates that I went to the site expecting to see exactly two logos each year.

I was also really surprised to see some of the people running some years. Pete Wilson ran for President in 1996! Someone named Tsongas ran in '92! Someone named Crane used *yellow* and the uber-cheesy "the early bird" as their slogan!

In sum, nice find.
posted by librarylis at 12:41 AM on May 16, 2008

The scary thing is, it's all the same names.

Oh yes, note also Papa Bayh and Papa Romney in the mix. But it's not so surprising when you think about how much personal wealth it takes to run for office successfully and rise to the level of presidential material, and how disproportionately wealth is held in this country. It's starting to even out somewhat, Obama being the personally least-affluent major party candidate to have such success in the modern era, but there's hegemony strongly at work here.
posted by Dreama at 1:50 AM on May 16, 2008

I love that Lamar! logo. It makes me want to sing!

Lamar!
You lack the wit of TV host Jack Paar
Yet Blanton's butt you slopped with tar
You could swipe a pirate's "aaaaaar"
La-Mar, Luh-mar, Lah- Maaaaahr!

You stole Fred Thompson's star!
You daycare children near and far!
You'd make an okay springtail tzar!
If you weren't such a BushCo Tar(d)!
La-Mar, La-Maaahhhhhhr!
posted by maryh at 2:11 AM on May 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Love the "LBJ USA" one with his big ugly face. But then Johnson could eat your average Presidential candidate for breakfast anyway.
posted by matteo at 2:12 AM on May 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

(I admit my pro-LBJ bias, in my college political-junkie days I sometimes fantasized about my dream race, LBJ v Reagan, wondering who'd win -- I am pretty sure LBJ, given a time travel machine, would have creamed every Republican candidate for President of the last 35 years with only the possible exception of Reagan. Even with Bush stealing two States in two elections -- Lyndon would probably have managed to steal more than two anyway. And he would have slapped Cheney around with his monster scrotum. Good times)
posted by matteo at 2:20 AM on May 16, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Interesting how Carter won despite having a green sticker. He seems so against the grain.

That was the point. He was the anti-Nixon.
posted by SteveInMaine at 2:42 AM on May 16, 2008

I'm loving Hughes '72 and I don't know why.
posted by the littlest brussels sprout at 4:31 AM on May 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I was also really surprised to see some of the people running some years. Pete Wilson ran for President in 1996! Someone named Tsongas ran in '92!

I'm going to take a while to decide whether this comment makes me feel extraordinarily politically informed or just really freakin' old.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 5:04 AM on May 16, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Probably both, Peter, probably both...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:07 AM on May 16, 2008

In western Europe only far right xenophobic political parties use national flags in logos

The fact that other countries do things other ways should--perhaps--not surprise you.

While that is an obvious comeback, and I say things like that all the time myself, the fact is that the American obsession with national symbols is weird and a little scary in a global context. I mean, when you think about Nations That Drape Their Flag Over Everything and Sing National Songs a Lot, what names come to mind? Yeah, that one... and that one... and—uh oh! Godwin!
posted by languagehat at 5:49 AM on May 16, 2008

McGovern/Eagleton to McGovern/Shriver... very sad.

Byrd gets serious style points for using the Boogie Nights font.
posted by psmealey at 5:51 AM on May 16, 2008

Man, I'm so glad they just put them all together instead of offering commentary on each one. Sometimes the key of content is knowing when to stop.
posted by sciurus at 5:56 AM on May 16, 2008

In western Europe only far right xenophobic political parties use national flags in logos

Agreed. Nationalist societies freak me out.
posted by greytape at 6:30 AM on May 16, 2008

Harkin (1992) uses the same font as spam (the meat product).
posted by Termite at 6:47 AM on May 16, 2008

'64's LBJ/USA and the half-scowling, half-grinning gaze of that old bastard peeking out at you. Its the look of inevitability.

Yet that didn't work for Fred Thompson.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:54 AM on May 16, 2008

Wait, if some are indeed from 4president.org then maybe it's sensible to credit them. It seems like a nice site.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:26 AM on May 16, 2008

Its odd how the candidates have almost entirely stopped using their pictures on their signs. In an abstract way you could even say that we used to vote for a person now we vote for a name.
posted by hexxed at 8:07 AM on May 16, 2008

Rock Steady: that looked more like a V-for-Vonnegut than a V-for-Vendetta to me. Fred Thompson '08, though, looks like something I'd expect to see in V for Vendetta.
posted by wtdoor at 8:22 AM on May 16, 2008

Speaking of color, did anybody else notice that all of 2008's front runners (McCain, Obama, Hillary, as well as Dodd, Kucinich and "Rudy") all have a decidedly lighter "Indigo" background, in stark contrast to the dominance of deep blue and violet backgrounds from 2004 and 2000? To me this reflects the trend towards "reaching across the isle" that is so popular this year. Also: McCain was the sole candidate with this background color in 2000.
posted by ChestnutMonkey at 8:31 AM on May 16, 2008

Whoops, meant "aisle", not "isle".
posted by ChestnutMonkey at 8:32 AM on May 16, 2008

No one else thought Duncan Hunter '08 was the worst one? It looks like a frickin' banner ad.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:40 AM on May 16, 2008

This page is rendering irregularly for me. Anyone else having the problem?
posted by zorro astor at 8:49 AM on May 16, 2008

Vilsack for President of Airstrip One!
posted by Avenger at 8:53 AM on May 16, 2008

I love the '72 Shirley Chisholm's slogan "Unbought and Unbossed". She was pretty freaking awesome.
posted by tula at 9:05 AM on May 16, 2008

Do I see this correctly? Has Tommy Thompson (2008) trademarked his own name?
posted by echo target at 10:45 AM on May 16, 2008

I'm loving Hughes '72 and I don't know why.

I do too, and I think it's because it reminds me of this and this.
posted by cashman at 10:49 AM on May 16, 2008

Read, right. and blew.
posted by anthill at 10:55 AM on May 16, 2008

I have a button from '72 with "President Nixon." on it, in the same font, but underneath, it says, "Now more than ever."
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 2:17 PM on May 16, 2008

Man, I remember that night we spent at the Nixon Lodge, sitting by the fire as the snow came down outside, picking like vultures at the carcasses of the unfortunate snowshoers who paid a visit. Liddy was using his bizarrely long skinning knife to cut at the flesh, covered in blood up to his shoulders, saying that we needed more meat, more raw meat to feed on if we were serious about taking over again, grabbing it back from those bastards who took it away so many years ago, when life was simple. Who was I to argue?
posted by krinklyfig at 4:40 PM on May 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

languagehat writes "While that is an obvious comeback, and I say things like that all the time myself, the fact is that the American obsession with national symbols is weird and a little scary in a global context. I mean, when you think about Nations That Drape Their Flag Over Everything and Sing National Songs a Lot, what names come to mind?"

Britain?
posted by krinklyfig at 4:58 PM on May 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

But then Johnson could eat your average Presidential candidate for breakfast anyway.

And then shit him out while sitting on the toilet talking to you.
posted by dhartung at 12:58 AM on May 17, 2008

the American obsession with national symbols is weird and a little scary in a global context

If I remember my Schoolhouse Rock correctly the magic phrase here was "no more kings".

Ah yes...

"We're gonna elect a president! (No more kings)
He's gonna do what the people want! (No more kings)
We're gonna run things our way! (No more kings)
Nobody's gonna tell us what to do!

Sans Kings you guys gotta swear allegiance to something. Funny how so many people want to reverse that and essentially swear allegiance to their own preferred presidential candidate...
posted by GuyZero at 7:15 AM on May 17, 2008

Sans Kings you guys gotta swear allegiance to something.

Really? Because there are very few kings left in today's world, and yet I'm under the impression that schoolkids in most of those kingless states don't have to swear allegiance to anything. I may, of course, be wrong.

Britain?

Back when they had an empire and were busy viciously oppressing the natives worldwide, yeah. Which is exactly what I'm talking about.
posted by languagehat at 7:39 AM on May 17, 2008

Swearing allegiance is stupid. It's a buncha horseshit. No one should do it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:16 AM on May 17, 2008

They used to know which way to face the apostrophe for the dates. They did it right in the old ones. Then they stopped doing it. Now only Obama gets it right. Is our children learning?
posted by bink at 4:17 PM on May 18, 2008