An Infamous Attack Ad Just Got an AI Resurrection

A Super PAC supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Senate campaign has released a $10 million AI-generated remake of the infamous 1964 'Daisy' attack ad, targeting Representative James Talarico's support for transgender youth. The ad, created by the American Principles Project, shows an AI-generated version of the original daisy girl on an operating table, with a narrator warning about 'irreversible puberty blockers' and 'sex-change surgeries.' The original ad, aired once by Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign, was seen by roughly 100 million people and helped Johnson win in a landslide.

Sign up for the free https://www.motherjones.com/newsletters/?mj oac=Article Top No Oligarchs Mother Jones Daily .In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign ran a terrifying 60-second advertisement https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/mbrs/ntscrm/01185386/01185386.mp4 . It opens with a three-year-old girl in a field, pulling petals off a daisy while counting to ten. Then, a man’s voice begins a countdown, and a nuclear explosion fills the screen. The advertisement only aired once, but roughly 100 million people saw it. The message was clear: Johnson’s opponent, Barry Goldwater, was a warmonger who would put American children in danger and bring nuclear armageddon. Johnson won in a landslide, and the daisy video became America’s most infamous attack ad. Now, a Super PAC acting on behalf of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senatorial campaign is using an AI-generated, Frankensteined version of Johnson’s video to push a different message. In this version, instead of being wiped out by a nuclear bomb, the daisy girl—resurrected via generative AI—lies on an operating table in front of an AI-generated version of Texas Representative James Talarico https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/james-talarico-texas-redistricting-gerrymandering-cornyn/ . “She dreams of growing up, falling in love, becoming a mother,” a narrator intones. “The trans industry preys on confused children. Irreversible puberty blockers. Cross-sex hormones. Sex-change surgeries.” It’s not the only AI advertisement Paxton or his allies have produced this cycle, nor is it the first designed to attack Talarico’s support for transgender youth https://www.them.us/politics/james-talarico-transgender-scapegoating-maddow . Another advertisement, which ran in June, shows an AI-generated James Talarico dancing in a dress, singing a parody version of “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music” reworked to be about giving girls hormones “til they grow mustaches.” Paxton has built his brand on ridiculing trans youth and making it as difficult as possible for them to access medical care. In May, he even took time during his runoff victory speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH aD8TsHqM to call Talarico’s defense of trans youth “weird.” This $10 million ad buy, though, might be the Paxton campaign’s most egregious attack yet. The ad was developed by the American Principles Project https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/anti-trans-transgender-health-care-ban-legislation-bill-minors-children-lgbtq/ , one of the earliest groups to push anti-trans laws. Their ultimate goal, as my colleague Madison Pauly has reported https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/as-the-supreme-court-weighs-trans-care-for-minors-adults-are-in-the-crosshairs/ , is to go beyond banning gender-affirming care for children and outlaw medical care for trans people of all ages https://www.notus.org/the-influencers/terry-schilling-transgender-rights-american-principles-project . As the group’s president, Terry Schilling, admitted https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/us/politics/transgender-laws-republicans.html last year, he and his allies are starting with children because that’s “where the consensus is.” The original “daisy girl” ad was effective because it was able to make people afraid. The campaign spot, which aired in the middle of a family television program, pushed parents to vote in the way they believed would protect their children from an unthinkable fate. Schilling and his allies hope to leverage parents’ fears of a supposed predatory medical establishment to push Paxton to victory. But if previous attempts to remix the daisy video are anything to go by, the American Principles Project may not succeed. Bob Dole, in 1996, aired a version of the daisy video that concerned itself with teenage drug use. Audiences didn’t find that particularly compelling, and Dole lost. The Hillary Clinton campaign, in 2016, tracked down the actress who starred in the original video to shoot an ad https://www.politico.com/video/2016/10/clinton-ad-daisy-061108 for her presidential bid. Clinton lost, too. An atom bomb is terrifying because it is real, but an AI-generated three-year-old on an operating table is a manufactured threat.