Dodge deserves praise for Super Bowl ad
The Super Bowl is a dangerous game for advertisers.
Even when creative intentions are noble, a commercial can be tackled by the outrage mob. Even when diligent care is paid to messaging and execution, a company can be excoriated as either clueless or treacherous.
Witness the censure that followed a Dodge Ram ad on Sunday night.
The 60-second spot, elevated by the soaring oratory of a Martin Luther King Jr. sermon delivered a half-century ago, featured scenes in which everyday people are helping others. It ends with the Ram tag line, “Built to Serve.”
It didn’t take long for social media to go Code Red with anger as critics accused Dodge of appropriating the sacred words of a civil rights icon to sell pickup trucks. The ad was deemed “tone-deaf,” “path- etic,” “unbelievable,” “stupid,” “gross,” “shameless” and “disgusting.”
If you were on a guacamole break and missed the ad but caught the indignation on Monday morning, you may have reasonably concluded Dodge had inserted a hologram of Dr. King behind the wheel of a Ram 3500 Big Horn as he revs across rural America, extolling the virtues of premium cloth and the fold-flat load floor.
What’s next in the campaign? Will Dodge have Gandhi shake a finger while explaining the RamBox Cargo Management System? Will Mother Teresa smile up at heaven while demonstrating the ParkView Rear Back Up Camera?
The online reaction to the King ad was so universally negative, the company tried to explain itself before victorious Philadelphia fans were even done rioting.
In a statement, the company wrote: “It is 50 years to the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave such a tremendous speech about the value of service. Ram was honoured to have the privilege of working closely with the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. to celebrate those words during the largest TV viewing event annually. Their representatives were a very important part of the creative approval process every step of the way.”
That’s where the outrage mob should’ve slammed on the ABS brakes.
Sorry, but this ad was not proof an evil corporation was posthumously exploiting a legend at a time when the issue of race is itself turbocharged. This was not a sinister plot to boost market share with overwrought images, a manipulative score and snippets from a sermon that, in other parts, is explicitly against the scourge of advertising and the trappings of consumerism.
This ad was not the crass commercialism its detractors imagine.
Instead, the spot was a lunge for inspiration, a quality that was mostly absent on Sunday night as companies unveiled Super Bowl ads ani- mated by gentle humour, celebrity cameos, special effects and relentless irony. Dodge was trying to offer an uplifting message on the milestone anniversary date of a speech that would’ve otherwise come and gone without any mention on Sunday.
For that alone, the company deserves hosannas, not catcalls. Compared to previous ads in which King’s likeness or words were used — including by Apple, Alcatel, General Motors, Mercedes — Sunday’s ad had nothing to do with exploitation by association. It was simply a call to action.
In this age, when cynicism is at peak levels and governments are abdicating the organizing principle of service, the ad was a reminder that anyone can make a difference. Critics say, “No way. This was about selling trucks. Period.”
But if that really was the secret plan, Dodge failed miserably, since it didn’t even include a single selling point in the ad. All things being equal, this could have been an ad for blackboards, axes, ultrasounds, helicopters or water.
In fact, one of the main reasons the King estate approved the creative via its official licensing company, Intellectual Properties Management (IPM), was the realization there was a “Ram Nation” of drivers with do-good impulses.
This reality does not perhaps dovetail with the sneering stereotype of pickup owners.
But commenting on the ad hoc group, Eric D. Tidwell, the managing director of IPM, noted: “We learned that as a volunteer group of Ram owners, they serve others through everything from natural disaster relief, to blood drives, to local community volunteer initiatives . . . We found that the overall message of the ad embodied Dr. King’s philosophy that true greatness is achieved by serving others.”
I hope Fiat Chrysler, which owns the Ram line, doesn’t convene an emergency crisis management meeting this week, followed by a public apology and prompt yanking of the ad. That’s the usual trajectory. This time, I hope a company isn’t cowed by the outrage mob into disavowing a commercial that, on balance, should be seen for what it is: inspiring.
We need the words and ideas of Dr. King, now more than ever.
And if a truck ad moves even one person into turning his words and ideas into a blueprint for serving others, we should stand on the curb and cheer. vmenon@thestar.ca