In collaboration with artists & film makers Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese, Transformer will be co-presenting a screening of Political Advertisement 1952-2024 at Busboys & Poets (450 K St. NW, Washington DC).

For 40 years, Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese have been compiling a video history of presidential campaign spots that follows the evolution of political advertising from its beginnings in 1952 to the present. When the artists started this project in 1984, acquiring broadcast political ads required exhaustive research in archives and often involved personal contact with the candidate’s campaigns, not as easy as today’s internet click and download.

The feature length video is a personal vision of how politics and politicians are shaped and presented through the moving image. Political Advertisement is an engaging critique, without voiceover commentary, highlighting how campaign ads manipulate public perception and affect voter behavior.

“Tonally, the film is a perfect hybrid of its creators’ sensibilities. It’s funny and nostalgic, and has an innocent quality, while at the same time offering a bleak view of a specifically American form of propaganda, born in 1952, that has grown to shape our political process — not just the way we sell our politicians but the nature of the political discourse itself.” – John Seabrook, The New Yorker

The experience is an historical stream of consciousness showcasing the political and technological histories of presidential candidates and the broadcast moving image. The video illustrates how advertising strategies have changed from television’s early days into sophisticated media campaigns based on projections of fear, prejudice and emotional triggers. Political Advertisement stands as an important work of media art merging cultural critique with historical documentation prompting viewers to consider the role of media in politics and its effects on democracy.