Power in Advertising

 I along with every other red blooded American involved in agriculture loved the Dodge Ram Superbowl commercial, however  there were a couple things that I did not realize.  I had read the speech before, but to be honest, did not know that it was presented by the iconic radio broadcaster Paul Harvey at the 1978 National FFA Convention until doing some research this morning on it. I also read on Facebook that Harvey himself did not write the speech, but I could not find who did, so that is pure speculation.  For those that missed the commercial, here it is.

This commercial is awesome and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up each time I watch it on Youtube.  I love what it stands for, the simple, yet powerful message that it displays.  Now, from a marketing standpoint, we all know that the main goal behind this ad is to sell trucks, understood,  especially when according to the wall street journal, Dodge/Chrysler spent about 15.2 million dollars on the 2 minute commercial. However, I would like to meet the man or woman at the marketing firm that thought this concept up  and thank them.  I would like to thank them for having the balls to spend that kind of money on a commercial that promotes two things above and beyond their product.....GOD and American values and hard work. At least that's the first two messages I got, oh yeah, and go buy a new Ram truck.  I have been seeing stuff all over the Internet today regarding this ad.  It depends on what group of people you associate with or what website you check. The video has gone viral and has been shared all over Facebook.  It is refreshing to see so many people from the Ag community standing proudly together for the morals and values that they stand for.  For me, what is unappealing, is the  people that I would tend say are more "uneducated" in regards to agriculture not getting the message and liking the Tide and Doritos commercials better.  The chat boards are full of comments from people who want to talk about factory farming, land management, over production, animal rights vs. animal welfare( don't get me started on this one, I will touch on this later).  I thought the Budweiser commercial was easily the second best of the night, and I will agree the Doritos commercial was funny, and  but c'mon people, if the Dodge commercial did not tug at you in just the least bit, you are missing the point.  The point is that there is a genre of special people in this country,  put here by God that have what it takes to do the job of a farmer.  These are the people that bust their ass to to provide food and textiles in a global market.  These are the people that  their very values and morals would not let them deplenish or rape the ground of all nutrients that are good for the ecosystem.  The same people who would turn their back at the idea of intentionally overpopulating an animal barn, compromising animal welfare for financial gain. This same group of people are the ones that are on the forefront of food safety, while at the same time being harassed by activist groups and lobbyists in Washington for pollution, pesticide use, animal confinement, biotechnology seed use, etc.  The fact of the matter is, not everyone is cut out to be a farmer or member of a farm subsidiary.  Not everyone can have the motivation to get up before dawn, spend the money and man hours to harvest a crop that will have yields substantially below average.  Or, as stated in the commercial, get up every 2 hours to bottle feed a newborn (insert calf, pig, sheep, colt, etc.), and at the same time knowing that it is not going to make it and watching the look of sadness in it's mothers eyes.  So God Bless the American farmer and Rancher.  Thank you for being caring and compassionate caretakers of both the land and stock of this world that God has given us.

Now, in an effort to not overshadow how much I enjoy this commercial and think the presentation was a win for the agriculture industry, there was one thing that I was not aware of until this morning and has disturbed me ever since. During the later years of his life, Paul Harvey was an active voice of animal rights groups such as HSUS and PETA  If a man like Paul Harvey delivers a speech with such power, substance, conviction, and validity in 1978 to a group of young people at the National FFA Convention, all but saying " I stand with you and for you", if he truly meant what he spoke, how can he later in life align his ideas with the same groups that stand against these same young people and their way of life? 

Thanks to Lindsay Bowman for giving me the idea for this rambling and for providing me with a link to Andy Vance's blog.  He is a great writer who has written an excellent blog on this same subject.  After a little research on Google, I found where Mr. Harvey had in fact supported such groups. Upon posting the picture of what I had found on Facebook, she along with others were quick to become Agvocates and express their opinions.  The funny thing is, I think people thought I was against this commercial, which couldn't be farther from the truth.  I just wanted to share what I had found so that people knew, yes, Paul Harvey was the voice of the commercial, however he was not message of the commercial.

Thank you Dodge for such an inspiring commercial.