News Release
June 15, 2020
Press contact: Matt Porter (617) 514-1574
matt.porter@jfklfoundation.org
www.jfklibrary.org
JFK Library Uses Kennedy’s “New Frontier” Speech to Inspire Discussion Around America’s Future
—Advertising Campaign Marks 60 Years Since JFK Accepted Democratic Nomination for President —
BOSTON, MA – The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum today announced a new advertising campaign that uses John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier” speech, delivered sixty years ago today at the 1960 Democratic National Convention, to speak to the historic challenges facing our country and to inspire people to take an active role in shaping a better future for all.
With many Americans currently wondering how and if the country will return to normal, the “New New Frontier” campaign asks, what kind of “normal” should we seek? In the original speech, Kennedy notes, "The World is changing. The old ways will not do. . . The New Frontier is here whether we seek it or not.” He goes on to explain that his vision for the New Frontier is “not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them.” In that spirit, the campaign invites people to join a conversation about how the country should move forward using the hashtag #NewNewFrontier.
“In a time of historic uncertainty, it’s easy to feel that the future is out of our hands,” said Alan Price, Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. “We hope that hearing President Kennedy embrace the idea of a new era serves as inspiration as we face unprecedented change, and that his call to be ‘pioneers’ of the new frontier is a reminder of the responsibility we each have to make this new world a better place.”
The campaign, created and developed by The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia, launches with :30 and :60 second online videos (View Spot 1 and Spot 2) and tv spots, which track a portion of JFK’s New Frontier speech.
The old era is ending. The old ways will not do. The New Frontier is here whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink from that new frontier…to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric…But I believe that the times require imagination and courage and perseverance. I'm asking each of you to be pioneers towards that New Frontier.
The campaign’s website – www.thenewnewfrontier.org – will collect and exhibit submissions from the public as it seeks to spark a national conversation around both how to build a better world during the post-crisis recovery and how to address the major issues facing us today. Links to information about specific initiatives launched during the Kennedy administration – Civil Rights legislation, the Peace Corps, an increased minimum wage, environmental protections, and universal healthcare for senior citizens – will provide examples and inspiration for how to move the country forward today.
About the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is one of 14 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The JFK Presidential Library and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.