I'm digesting the numbers from the Super Bowl and it looks like over 100 million people watched the big game again. I'm pretty happy because the taking the Philadelphia Eagles and plus six points was the steal of the year (uhhhhhm, hypothetically, because I would never gamble, of course). I have the DVR on fast forward trying to look at the commercials again and making sure I hear that Ram Trucks commercial properly.
I mean, was that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stumping for the truckmaker? Was the good doctors speech about about the value of service really being used as a voiceover to sell trucks? Really? Remember when MLK said "I have a dream that one day a recording of a speech I gave about redefining greatness as a function of your readiness to serve your fellow man will be licensed by my descendants for Ram to use in an offensive truck commercial.”
Wait? Whaaaaat? He didn’t?
In a season marked by President Trump battling the National Football League over kneeling during the national anthem, you would think that using MLK to sell trucks is the the wrong mistake. And given everything that is going on in the country right now centering on race, it seems that there too much emotion to go there. In previous years, this high-risk move might have worked. Today? Not so much.
Needless to say, Twitter was set on fire with criticism of the ad...here's a handful of sarcasm from the Net:
I think we all agree that MLK’s message was, “Buy more cars”— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) February 5, 2018
Now that Martin Luther King is endorsing a pickup truck from beoynd the grave i think we can all declare racism offically dead— PFTCommenter (@PFTCommenter) February 5, 2018
Not sure MLK’s dream was to drive a Dodge Ram.— ItsTheReal (@itsthereal) February 5, 2018
Neither @TheKingCenter nor @BerniceKing is the entity that approves the use of #MLK’s words or imagery for use in merchandise, entertainment (movies, music, artwork, etc) or advertisement, including tonight’s @Dodge #SuperBowl commercial.— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) February 5, 2018
Fiat Chrysler said in a statement, “We worked closely with the representatives of the MLK's estate to receive the necessary approvals, and estate representatives were a very important part of the creative process every step of the way.”
Eric D. Tidwell, the managing director of the firm managing King's intellectual property, Intellectual Properties Management, said, “Once the final creative was presented for approval, it was reviewed to ensure it met our standard integrity clearances. We found that the overall message of the ad embodied Dr. King’s philosophy that true greatness is achieved by serving others.”
What actually occurred was that the night’s most tone-deaf and abhorrent ad was born and the perhaps THE moral leader of the 20th century is made to shill for Dodge.
What you don't hear in all of this critical white noise is that Ram Trucks resonated with their base using the MLK voiceover. It's a well-known fact in advertising agencies serving the automobile industry that African-Americans do not buy trucks at the same levels that Caucasian-American do. So, the message selling trucks is almost always geared towards white Americans.
Sorry for the truth here, so don't shoot the messenger...
Onto some of the other spots:
Toyota leads off its Super Bowl ad buy with a spot featuring Lauren Woolstencroft, a Paralympic skier, who has won eight gold medals. While I am pleased that Woolstencroft earned some publicity—her perseverance and determination are very inspiring—but again it makes me cringe on what and whom are used are used to sell cars. Seriously, it doesn’t any perseverance or determination to lease or purchase a Toyota...it takes somewhere between $199 and $499 a month for 36 months, plus drive off fees...
Wendy’s—unofficial corporate motto: “Our Food Is Meh, but at Least We’re Jerks on Twitter”—takes a page from Avis trying harder with direct shot at McDonald’s: “The iceberg that sank the Titanic was frozen, too,” says the ad. In your face, Mickey D's! I love a good fast-food feud as much as anyone, but I feel like Wendy’s would do well to mind that Old World proverb: “Restaurants that sell weird square hamburgers shouldn’t throw stones.”
Easily my favorite ad as Peter Dinklage lip-dubs a Busta Rhymes song for Doritos, and then is immediately bookended by Morgan Freeman lip-dubbing a Missy Elliott song in an ad for Mountain Dew.
In my Class of 2017 Media Guy Hall of Shame Inductees column I took aim at T-Mobile for their endless and annoying audio cues. Now Bud Light is doing it with this “Dilly Dilly” nonsense. Don't get me wrong, because I'm not so ignorant to understand that this catchphrase is something of a phenomenon. These inexplicably popular ads also leave me inexplicably wanting to punch my TV as well.
Diet Coke Tasted Mango...I can hear the execs sitting around in the concept room.
"We need to show everyone that it’s not just for your colleagues in accounting anymore!"
"How about we put a dictionary-definition millennial in front of a yellow brick wall and she can hold a can of Diet Coke Twisted Mango, dance awkwardly, and mumble to herself?"
"We can let the music play for 30 seconds over her inane mumbling and $5 million well spent! Right?!"
I guess it did its job...I am now painfully aware that Diet Coke comes in mango.
Here's what the real MLK speech sounded like on February 4, 1964:
