God Made Commercials

So how about those Broncos? The recent SuperBowl was a bit of a blowout, but the ads are the only reason I watch anyway. This is one ad from  Dallas based agency, Richards Group for Ram trucks that has the net buzzing. Wieden + Kennedy is still doing great things with Dodge, so let's see how Richards Group tackled Ram.

This is where I will start to veer away from the ad-side of the conversation and probably sound like a cynic. I'm from the midwest; a truck is almost ALWAYS within spitting distance. But don't, truck owners take a lot of pride in those things. So...

Yeah, God made the farmers. Just like He made beer, football, chewing tobacco and war. I’ve heard some choice words used to describe advertisers and the people that are deemed evil for daring to move product. When it comes to me, I’m not sure what to decide. The applied-advertising-major-to-be in me says, “Hell yeah, God made farmers! Corn whiskey with stars n’ bars ridin’ on my muddy truck. Now if I could go ahead and get you to sign here…”

Whether this kind of pandering sells the shiny debt-boulders new trucks are is unbeknownst to me, but it’s no mistake that this kind of advertising gets attention. It was at about 7 million views when I sat through it. If you don’t feel like watching it for yourself (It’s 2 minutes long. So much as 10 seconds can cost up to $1 million), I’ll try and help out a little bit. The commercial describes the hardest working and most badass farmer imaginable. Taking care of business and making due with what’s at hand. Do people like that exist? Maybe they do; and hat’s off to them. None of the true-grit farmers I know drive new trucks anyway… In my experience, “farmers” are rowdy kids that grow up to realize that Pa is making quite a bit of money off of the old family dirt. All of a sudden, your last name is more than something you had to learn to spell in kindergarten. After enough time passes by, lift-kitted trucks and black smoke are all they care about. Ag-science is no cake-walk, but working for Dad takes care of the truck payment. And it’s awful nice to pay for all of that expensive Taco John’s food I cook up for them too. What I’m getting at is this; I don’t care what kind of truck you’re selling, with a commercial like that you may as well be selling rum to a pirate. America eats this up. Go ahead and tell us we’re hard working badasses with tired eyes and calloused hands with your high definition magic. It has everything to do with our popular smug contentment, and nothing to do with the all new interior of a 2013 Ram pick-em-up-truck.