The ad is infamous at this point. Some say it sank Barry Goldwater's campaign. Many now claim that it was a seminal moment in political advertisements. Some claim that it is the godfather of today's nasty attack ads. It ran only once, but it lived on in the memories of those who saw it, talked about it and heard about it. Of course, the fact that nightly news shows played it again and again didn't hurt either.
In any case, "The Daisy Girl" (below) turns 50 today.
It’s a minute long and appeared during Monday Night at the Movies on NBC. This is what happens next, as TIME described it: The countdown ends, and the screen erupts in atomic explosion, followed by the voice of Lyndon Baines Johnson, who says somberly: “These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must die.”The movie, just in case you want to kill at your next trivia party?
"David and Bathsheba," starring Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward.