In 1964, a blond girl plucked the petals off a daisy. In 1984, morning broke across America, and a menacing grizzly bear lumbered through the woods. Four years later, Willie Horton’s mug shot glowered across everybody’s screens. In 2004, John Kerry windsurfed to the Blue Danube Waltz. These iconic campaign ads—among the precious few that have changed the way people thought about campaigns and candidates over the last half-century—stuck in the American consciousness, more than anything, because they were weird. Each diverged from the typical fare—the candidates talking soulfully into the cameras, the bang-bang-bang attacks with slashing imagery and menacing narrators, and (after Ronald Reagan’s 1984 landslide) the myriad knockoffs of “Morning in America.”

You’d think it would surprise no one to learn that the commercials that can change people’s political perceptions are the ones that look and sound fresh, the ones you can watch without thinking, “Geez, another campaign ad.” The ones that, even if you live in Iowa or South Carolina or New York, you still wouldn’t mind watching.



But Republican campaigns and consultants roundly ignored that lesson—as they always do—during the GOP presidential primary season. Given the huge field of candidates, the fireworks repeatedly set off by Donald Trump, and the ever-mounting desperation of the Republican establishment to derail Trump, you might have expected one of those iconic spots to emerge. Instead, for the hundreds of millions Republicans spent on more than 300 commercials since April 2015—when Ted Cruz launched “Blessing,” the first televised ad of the 2016 cycle, over Easter Weekend in Iowa—not one truly defined a candidate or lastingly changed the course of the race. The vast majority were the same old, same old: vicious attack ads, grainy contrast spots, sunny biographical hymns.

But amid all that blaring sameness, a few ads—and one actor—stood out. And since they are such rare and shining examples, they deserve recognition. Made-up awards, even? So here’s a look back at the stand-out GOP primary ads, what made them special—and what Hillary Clinton and the Democrats might learn from a couple of them about how to go after Trump. (Also, how not to.)

Coolest Visuals: “Mud”

Fred Davis, the Los Angeles consultant who made the ads for New Day for America, the super PAC that backed John Kasich, is known for whimsical, creative spots that defy norms—in ways both good and just plain mystifying. He was behind both the infamous “Demon Sheep” commercial that Carly Fiorina aired during her failed Senate race in 2010 and John McCain’s 2008 “Celeb” ad, which attempted to link Barack Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in Americans’ minds.