By DAVID A. CHAUVIN //
In September 1988, Democratic nominee for President of the United States Michael Dukakis, with his lead in the race dwindling fast, visited the General Dynamics plant in Michigan for a photo op.
The former Massachusetts governor’s campaign needed a jolt. Earlier that summer, the Dukakis campaign had been full of momentum, but a series of miscalculations – including the infamous Willie Horton incident and the candidate’s divisive opposition to
President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense program – left Dukakis reeling, with a growing reputation of being “soft on crime” and anti-military.
So, he headed to Sterling Heights, strapped on a helmet, climbed into an MI Abrams tank and tried his hardest to look like a battle-hardened war hawk.
Instead, he looked like a giant goofball.
The George H.W. Bush campaign seized on the subsequent advertisement, relentlessly mocked Dukakis for it, and went on to win the presidency in a near landslide.
David Chauvin: Manipulation consternation.
While it’s inaccurate to pin the loss solely on that photo, it’s true the tank photo is one of the few things the public remembers from that doomed campaign. In my industry, the “Dukakis tank photo” is universal shorthand for a public relations stunt gone wrong.
In the world of politics, we get Dukakis tank photos all the time. One recent example, however, is a bit more malicious, and only time will tell if it backfires as badly as Dukakis’ error.
Last week, in a giant political stunt, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rerouted a plane of Venezuelan refugees away from his state and north to Martha’s Vineyard, a famously affluent island situated off Cape Cod, Mass. DeSantis, in what should be little surprise to anyone, told no one in Massachusetts about his plans, sparking an immediate mini human rights crisis. (For the record, Martha’s Vineyard residents handled the surprise with great aplomb.)
The human rights ramifications of this headline grab are heartbreaking, and well beyond the scope of a media-focused opinion column. Say what you will about Dukakis’ buffoonish photo shoot, but at least he wasn’t toying with real human lives; even an objective look at the potential public relations fallout from DeSantis’ move shows clearly how this could fail as spectacularly as the tank photo.
The main problem with this stunt is how nakedly obvious it is. Anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary politics knew exactly what DeSantis was up to the moment the story broke.
Ron DeSantis: Stunt man.
It then begs the question: For whom did he do this?
Undecided voters? To the extent any of those truly exist anymore, not a chance – the dwindling cadre of moderate voters is turned off by the major parties precisely because of stunts like this.
The Republican base? He had them already.
My best guess is that DeSantis was aiming to create his own Trumpian moment – his version of The Wall – to be his calling card if Donald Trump is disinterested, incarcerated or otherwise doesn’t run for President in 2024.
But I’d be more inclined to believe that if this wasn’t such a bad deal for Florida. For instance, early reports show that DeSantis spent around $12 million in taxpayer money to divert the plane to Martha’s Vineyard.
Additionally, Republicans have enjoyed success in Florida – a traditional swing state – largely due to positive inroads with Hispanic and Latino voters. Early signs show those voters hate what DeSantis did.
If this snowballs, could DeSantis be in trouble in his reelection bid this fall? Polls favor the governor right now, but polls showed Dukakis with a large lead in the Summer of 1988, too. DeSantis only squeaked by in 2018 – how does struggling in his home state in 2022 help him in 2024?
Maybe I’m being naïve. Maybe I don’t want to believe this stunt has any chance of succeeding because of the terrible things that would say about America.
But public relations professionals took note of Dukakis’ blunder in 1988: Voters who saw the tank photo then knew they were being manipulated.
Voters – and human lives, tragically – are being manipulated by Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party. Will voters realize it? And more importantly, when they do, will they care?
David A. Chauvin is executive vice president of ZE Creative Communications.
David, another thoughtful, on-point column. I was a Dukakis delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1988 and ran his Long Island campaign operation. As you rightfully state, Dukakis’ tank blunder hurt no one but himself, but DeSantis’ stunt involves the lives of vulnerable immigrants seeking safe harbor here in the U.S. And I don’t think the moderate “swing” voters of Florida will find what he did to be clever nor appropriate and he will pay the price on election day.