1984 Reagan VS. Mondale

"Supermarket"

Transcript

Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate
"Supermarket," Reagan, 1984

[TEXT: November 6th, before you go to vote...]

MALE NARRATOR: Before you go to vote, go somewhere else first. The supermarket. Figure out what prices would be if inflation was still out of control. Add twenty-six cents to a loaf of bread, if Carter/Mondale's inflation continued. Add thirty-four cents to milk. A dollar twenty-eight to a pound of bacon. If that doesn't convince you to vote for President Reagan, stop off at the gas station and imagine paying two twenty-seven a gallon.

[TEXT: PRESIDENT REAGAN: Leadership that's working]

MALE NARRATOR: President Reagan. He's brought inflation down.

Credits

"Supermarket," Reagan-Bush '84, 1984

Video courtesy of Ronald and Nancy Reagan/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1984/supermarket (accessed June 1, 2025).

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1984 Reagan Mondale Results

In 1984, the economy was in an upswing. Oil prices were low, interest rates were high, and the lurking problem of the mounting federal deficit caused little public concern. The popular President Reagan was earning the label "the Teflon president" for his ability to escape unscathed from setbacks. In October 1983, 241 marines were killed in a terrorist attack in Beirut. The debacle was eclipsed days later by a marine invasion of Grenada, purportedly to save a small group of medical students from the island’s new leftist government. Public confidence in the military was restored.

The unenviable task of running against Reagan fell to former Vice President Walter Mondale. Mondale made two bold choices in his campaign, both of which backfired. First, he selected a woman, New York Representative Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate. Media scrutiny of her husband’s finances put Ferraro on the defensive. Second, Mondale announced in his acceptance speech that he would raise taxes to fight the deficit. He missed the opportunity to point out that a day earlier Reagan had quietly signed a bill raising taxes by $50 billion. Reagan succeeded in tagging Mondale as a typical free-spending Democrat, and won the most lopsided electoral victory since 1936.

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