We Almost Made It

by Malcolm D. MacDougall

'We Almost Made It'' by Malcolm D. MacDougall. New 1977. First edition. Excellent irreverent account by former advertising man MacDougall regarding the Ford re-election campaign, which, spending $12,000,000 in a five-week advertising blitz, was dubbed the most expensive U.S. Presidential campaign ever.

244 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1988

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

In late July 1976, Republican President Gerald R. Ford trailed his Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter by 33 percentage points according to a Gallup poll, in his race for reelection. Enter Malcolm MacDougall, a Boston-based corporate advertiser, brought in to be the "Creative Director" for the Ford for President campaign. MacDougall recounts his fast-paced babe-in-the-woods introduction to presidential campaign politics. As the title suggests, the Ford campaign came up just short in its reelection efforts, but in MacDougall's view, the ad campaign succeeded at selling an un-telegenic man to a skeptical public. A fast and witty read, "We Almost Made It" will provide useful insight into the adman's craft and the thinking of a one-time general in a presidential campaign air war waged at the height of classic TV-age politics .

[Cliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amusing, fairly smart, but ultimately forgettable tale of an advertising guy with only minor connections to politics that gets sucked into the Ford campaign, and how they went to being down 29pts to losing by a whisker.

Perhaps I'm jaded by the many books since then. I enjoyed George Stephanopolis's "All too Human" a lot more, and it had somewhat similar content and humor, although Stephanopolis has a bit more reverence. While this is a brisk, easy read, and apparently is a cult classic amongst some political hacks, it's not a whole lot more than pretty good. Perhaps my expectations were too high.