The NyTimes has an interesting story about the American Museum of the Moving Image's "The Living Room Candidate," an online exhibition on presidential campaign ads
here.
And just to confirm that President Bush is no more than President Nixon Redux, they included this great recycling gem:
A 2004 Bush ad called "Defense," specially made for Florida voters, shows a sepia-tinted battleground. As the narrator lists weapons that Mr. Kerry voted against, "Apache helicopters, C-130 Hercules and F-16 fighter jets, components of which are all built here in Florida"; tanks and missiles vanish through the magic of computer graphics. The ad ends with the image of a forlorn-looking soldier and a narrator's voice intoning, "Kerry even voted against body armor for our troops on the front line of the War on Terror."
In 1972, the Nixon campaign ran an ad about Senator George McGovern's proposed defense cuts. As a narrator warned, "He would cut the Marines by one-third, the Air Force by one-third. He'd cut Navy personnel by one-fourth"; a hand swept toy soldiers and miniature tanks and ships off the screen.