So God Created Transit: A Fitting Response to Dodge Ram’s Super Bowl Ad
Hey, so you also shed a tear or two for the Dodge Ram “So God Made a Farmer” Super Bowl commercial before you realized it was about trucks. Because really, what does Dodge have to do with the noble, heart-warming, bittersweet story of farmers anyway? It’s a speech conservative radio personality Paul Harvey gave in 1978, and you can be pretty sure he wasn’t thinking of the two-ton Dodge Ram.
Well, Diana Lind, editor of Next City, also felt manipulated by Dodge’s unabashed attempt to steal some of the honor Harvey bestows on farmers. She objected to the way the commercial “conflated the merits of people with those of cars.”
“Which seems a bit sad for 2013, when in the past six months climate change has reared its ugly head and begged us to change our consumption economy for something a bit more sustainable,” she wrote. “And the nostalgic imagery — as if we only believe in farmers and soldiers to represent the best of humanity, and as if buying a car is a noble act — started to offend me.
So what did she do? She made her own video. It’s a commercial for transit, and it’s actually about transit, not farmers or fairies or veterinarians or anything else. She apologizes for making it hastily and without a lot of video-making expertise, but I think it’s brilliant. I think the country needs to see it and begin to appreciate their city’s humble transit service.
Now who’s going to make a bike/ped answer to the heartstring-pulling Jeep commercial about soldiers returning from war?
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