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Remembering Bob Goodman: The Man Who Put Panache in Political Advertising

Remembering Bob Goodman: The Man Who Put Panache in Political Advertising
Bob Goodman with John Gizzi (Photo courtesy of John Gizzi)

John Gizzi By Sunday, 22 July 2018 07:09 PM EDT Current | Bio | Archive

News of the death of Bob Goodman on July 18 had a mighty impact on those who knew or simply heard of the legendary media maestro.

In leaving us at age 90, Goodman reminded all of those who came to age watching political commercials in the 1960s just how the art had evolved: from a time when TV spots featured the candidates simply talking into the camera to an era in which political commercials are miniature drama complete with music and humor.

Baltimore-born Goodman was a major player in that evolution. He applied his love of and background in music and an unending sense of humor to the marketing of candidates.

In the process, he elected scores of governors and senators and helped make two vice presidents — one of whom went on to become president.

A graduate of Haverford College in Pennsylvania and U.S. Air Force veteran of the Korean War, the young Goodman went to work for the Joseph Katz Advertising Agency in his hometown of Baltimore. There, he got his first taste of political advertising — working on the presidential campaign of Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

A lover of music who studied under violinist Louis Cheslock and later mastered the guitar ("I thought it would help with the ladies"), Goodman primarily handled corporate accounts such as the local Chevrolet dealership throughout the 1950s.

In 1965, he met with the Baltimore county executive who planned to become the Republican nominee for governor in a state with a Democratic voting advantage of 5-to-1.

"I told my friends that I met this guy who was more charismatic than Jack Kennedy or FDR," Goodman recalled to me, "They were all committed to either of the two liberal Democrats who were running and very skeptical. But I said I was going to do the advertising for his campaign and to keep an eye on him.

"His name was Spiro Agnew, but he told everyone to call him 'Ted.'"

Goodman produced a much-discussed spot showing Agnew at work with "My Kind of Man/Ted Agnew Is" sung in the background. Written by Goodman and sung to the tune of the Frank Sinatra hit "My Kind of Town/Chicago Is," the song caught on and was soon being hummed from Baltimore to the Chesapeake Bay.

Goodman knew who had the rights to the song and with one phone call, got her permission ("no charge") to adapt "My Kind of Town" as the Agnew campaign theme.

The two liberal Democrats with whom Goodman's friends were enamored both lost the primary to George Mahoney, who opposed open housing and civil rights legislation. Grassroots Democrats, as well as 70 percent of the black voters, bolted to Republican Agnew and he won handily.

(Two years later, Agnew became vice president and, as he grew increasingly conservative, was considered the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976. In 1973, however, revelations of taking kickbacks from contractors while governor and in the vice president's office forced him to resign.)

Following Agnew's triumph in 1966, offers from other Republican office-seekers began to flow in to Bob Goodman and his creative mind was working overtime.

"I saw a very handsome congressman from West Virginia named Arch Moore speaking," said Goodman, "And I suddenly had this song running through my head — 'Arch, Arch, Arch on the March!' When he finished speaking, I told him 'You're going to be elected governor and I'm going to help you.'"

Although Moore had not yet made a final decision to run for governor, he signed Moore on and eventually did make the race. TV spots blared "Arch on the March!" and volunteers picked up the tune. In 1968, Moore was elected to the first of three terms as governor.

For more than a decade, Bob Goodman sculpted the on-air broadsides for a generation of Republican senators and governors who would become key legislative point men under Presidents Reagan and Bush.

One 1984 spot showed a detective with barking bloodhounds on the prowl throughout Kentucky and unable to find Democratic Sen. Dee Huddleston. This accentuated the claim of Republicans that Huddleston "never comes home" and was pivotal to the upset election of Mitch McConnell.

Others Goodman helped propel to office with his unique formulas for the small screen were GOP Sens. Trent Lott of Mississippi, Malcolm Wallop and Al Simpson of Wyoming and Pete Wilson of California.

But he will probably be best remembered for overseeing the television campaigning for George H.W. Bush in his 1980 bid for the Republican presidential nomination that ended in his being selected as the running mate for erstwhile rival Ronald Reagan.

"Ask George Bush," a forum in which the candidate took questions from an audience, was filmed by Goodman and made into a series of commercials. Showing Bush as an informed and occasionally tough contender made him a stronger contender among voters who knew he had held several significant positions but little else about him.

He left the business he entered more than half a century ago radically changed from what it was. In that sense, Bob Goodman was a man of consequence and an agent of change.

"One of the most powerful men in America" is how The New York Times dubbed Bob Goodman in 1984. Goodman, who never took himself too seriously, was probably amused by the praise. By the 1990s, he had essentially left film-making to producer-son, Adam, and politics to consultant-son, Max.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.

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John-Gizzi
News of the death of Bob Goodman on July 18 had a mighty impact on those who knew or simply heard of the legendary media maestro. In leaving us at age 90, Goodman reminded all of those who came to age watching political commercials in the 1960s just how the art had evolved:...
bob goodman, political advertising
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2018-09-22
Sunday, 22 July 2018 07:09 PM
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