Whip Inflation Now
{{Short description|PR campaign begun by US president Ford}}
File:WIN form.jpg|date=October 9, 1974|agency=Associated Press|pages=7|access-date=December 28, 2012|archive-date=January 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113030933/http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Watertown%20Times/Watertown%20NY%20Daily%20Times%20%20Oct%201974%20Grayscale/Watertown%20NY%20Daily%20Times%20%20Oct%201974%20Grayscale%20-%200182.pdf|url-status=dead}}]]
Whip Inflation Now (WIN) was a 1974 attempt to spur a grassroots movement to combat inflation in the United States, by encouraging personal savings and disciplined spending habits in combination with public measures, urged by U.S. President Gerald Ford. The campaign was later described as "one of the biggest government public relations blunders ever".{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122801002.html|title=Ford's WIN Buttons Remembered|last=CRUTSINGER|first=MARTIN|date=2006-12-28|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2017-07-09|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}
People who supported the mandatory and voluntary measures were encouraged to wear "WIN" buttons,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-OMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7305%2C4218347|title=WIN buttons in high demand|last=Cormier|first=Frank|date=Oct 10, 1974|publisher=Associated Press|access-date=11 January 2010}} {{Dead link|date=December 2021}} perhaps in hope of evoking in peacetime the kind of solidarity and voluntarism symbolized by the V-campaign during World War II.
Campaign
Ford took office in August 1974 amidst one of the worst economic crises in US history, marked by high unemployment and inflation rising to 12.3% that year following the 1973 oil crisis. As a Republican, Ford favored the WIN campaign's emphasis on addressing the problem through voluntary actions of citizens, instead of price controls imposed centrally by a big government bureaucracy.
Ford launched the WIN campaign with war-like intensity in his address to the American people before Congress on October 8, 1974, declaring inflation "public enemy number one" in a speech entitled "Whip Inflation Now". He announced proposals for public and private anti-inflationary efforts across many sectors, including carpooling, reducing oil imports, one‐year tax increase for corporations, reduced thermostat use, home vegetable gardens, and retailers holding or reducing prices. A new 18-member inflation fighting committee was led by journalist Sylvia Porter and had varied members such as Ralph Nader and Chamber of Commerce president Arch Boot.{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Philip Shabecoff Special to The New York |date=1974-10-09 |title=A CALL FOR ACTION |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/09/archives/a-call-for-action.html |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} As Ford exhorted the nation to begin a "massive mobilization" he wore a red button with "WIN" on his breast pocket, a word which "tells it all" because "win we will". Ford offered identical pins for citizens who enlisted by mail as "Inflation Fighters".{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HHgsAAAAIBAJ&pg=7050%2C5980218|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717055527/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HHgsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0PoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7050,5980218|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 17, 2012|title=WIN is losing|date=Dec 20, 1974|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=11 January 2010}}{{Cite news |date=1974-10-09 |title=Button for Inflation Fighters |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-bulletin-button-for-inflat/169486301/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |pages=18}} However, he had the only pin in existence at the time. Within a week, a slapdash group had been assembled, with employees pulled from various federal agencies, to manage the 80,000 pieces of mail, most of which were requests for WIN buttons.{{Cite news |date=1974-10-10 |title=Crusade Is Not Buttoned Up |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-sun-crusade-is-not-buttoned-u/169485624/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=The Herald-Sun |pages=16}}{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Shawn G. Kennedy Special to The New York |date=1974-10-18 |title=MAILON INFLATION |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/18/archives/mail-on-inflation-swamping-staff-federal-aides-sort-advice-and-win.html?searchResultPosition=10 |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}
"WIN" buttons immediately became objects of ridicule. Retailers of "everything from used cars to pizza" quickly used the inflation message as a gimmick to drive sales, which encouraged increased consumer spending behavior instead of curbing it.{{Cite news |last=Times |first=James P. Sterba Special to The New York |date=1974-11-17 |title=New ‘Advice’ to Curb Inflation: Now Buy More—Spend! |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/17/archives/new-advice-to-curb-inflation-buy-now-buy-morespend-garlic-bread-too.html |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} A McDonald's radio ad depicted a dad describing inflation followed by an announcer declaring a 50-cent kids’ special with a hamburger, fries, and a soft drink. When the dad asks "Well, son, how do’ you like fighting inflation?" he replies "It tastes good." Skeptics wore the buttons upside down to make them say "NIM", and joked it stood for "Nonstop Inflation Merry-go-round," or "Need Immediate Money."
By March 10, Sylvia Porter announced the program would be halted and that ultimately WIN had lost.{{Cite news |date=1975-03-09 |title=WIN Has Lost |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/09/archives/win-has-lost.html |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Media memorialized as "one of the great fizzles of American history".{{Cite news |date=1975-03-10 |title=No-WIN policy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-plain-dealer-no-win-policy/169489318/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |work=The Plain Dealer |pages=4}}
Alan Greenspan, as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Ford administration, went along reluctantly with the "Whip Inflation Now" campaign, but would later recall in his book The Age of Turbulence that he was thinking, "This is unbelievably stupid" when the concept was first presented to the White House. According to historian Yanek Mieczkowski, the public campaign was never meant to be the centerpiece of the anti-inflation program.{{cite book|isbn=0-8131-2349-6|page=134|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2JyHO1vNOEC&q=Russell%20Freeburg%20Whip%20inflation%20now&pg=PA134|author=Yanek Mieczkowski|year=2005|publisher=Univ. Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky.|title=Gerald Ford and the challenges of the 1970s}}
Gallery
File:"I can WIN" button.JPG|"I can WIN" button
File:"Plant a WIN garden" button.JPG|"Plant a WIN garden" button
File:"WIN" bag.jpg|"WIN" bag
File:"WIN" button.JPG|"WIN" button
File:"WIN" campaign tab.JPG|"WIN" campaign tab
File:"WIN" earrings.JPG|"WIN" earrings
File:"WIN" football.jpg|"WIN" football
File:"WIN" patterned sweater.JPG|"WIN" patterned sweater
File:"WIN" stickers.JPG|"WIN" stickers
File:"WIN" wristwatch.JPG|"WIN" wristwatch
File:"WIN"sign.JPG|"WIN"sign
File:WIN needlework picture.JPG|WIN needlework picture
File:WIN pin.JPG|WIN pin
File:WIN t-shirt.JPG|WIN T-shirt
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Whip Inflation Now}}
- [https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/october-8-1974-whip-inflation-now-speech "Whip Inflation Now" speech by Gerald Ford], Miller Center of Public Affairs. Includes transcript and video.
- James D. Hamilton: [http://econbrowser.com/archives/2006/12/win_buttons_and WIN buttons and Arthur Burns]. Econbrowser blog, December 29, 2006
{{Presidency of Gerald Ford}}
Category:American political catchphrases
Category:Presidency of Gerald Ford
Category:1974 in American politics
Category:Inflation in the United States
Category:Ford administration controversies
Category:1974 in economic history