In 1976, a housewife from New York, Ellen McCormack ran for President. In 18 states, her name appeared on primary election ballots as a Democrat. Her platform was strictly based on a pro-life approach to the issue of abortion. Even though she did not win any primaries, McCormack’s campaign was successful enough to have raised money for federal matching funds and for Secret Service protection. The extra campaign dollars also allowed for the creation of television spots that would promote McCormack’s pro-life beliefs.
Would a commercial, such as this one, work in today’s political climate?
Politics Matters 
I believe in order for a commercial like this to work, the candidate needs to have a bigger platform. I do not think anyone would win a Presidential Election based solely on a social issue like abortion. Abortion is a large social issue that has a lot of controversy related to it. The candidate need to be able to help a large group of people, and some people are indifferent about abortion, some people are pro-abortion, and some people are pro-life. This is the case with any social issue, so I think it would be very difficult to win an election based on a social issue and be able to please everyone.
I think a ad like this would surly work in todays political climate, but I do think it needs to be a little bit longer and more informal than this ad. This ad focusses only on the issues of abortion and her stance on the matter. If this ad was used, and also conveyed more information her her views and ideas, I think it could possibly be more effect. Sure, this would cause for a slightly longer ad, but I think it would make it more powerful, especially in todays society.
I don’t think an ad like this would work in today’s political climate. I think this woman would be eaten for breakfast in attack ads. I could picture all the ways people could spin this with rape, teens, and how many people are on social welfare programs. I think you need more of a platform than just anti-abortion. While I do believe properly placed ads can work for a single issue, this being the singular ad/issue for her campaign is probably why she never won any primaries.
Yes, I think an ad like this would definitely work in today’s day an age with a few slight changes. The idea of the ad is good, it was just need to be longer and tell us more about the candidate running for office. A lot of people have strong opinions against abortion, so i think this ad would be a great attention getter as long as more facts were added to it. My personal opinion would be that the candidate running with this ad would gain more female voters.
I am on the fence about this ad. It ultimately would work for people who are pro-life, but I could see where it could cost a lot of controversy for the ones for abortion. There are reasons why abortion unfortunately needs to happen. I believe that the candidate would need something more besides abortion to help to get elected. There needs to be something that everyone can benefit from. The issue of abortion is more towards woman, some other issue would need to be pointed out to help get elected.
in my opinion, an AD like this would probably not work today because you have so many people that get offended by everything. They would be calling the news station complaining about this AD. But give it 15 years ago in 2000 this AD might have worked. Just that times have changed.