Find The Line

Published in

RTA902 (Social Media)

4 min readFeb 15, 2018

#PAID: Analyze the social media reaction to the Ram Trucks ad that aired during the recent Super Bowl. Were these polarized reactions intentional? Reverse-engineer the ad and attempt to explain why the executives thought this was a worthwhile investment of $5+ million dollars

A Dodge commercial that was aired during the most recent Super Bowl using the voice of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. backfired, with viewers harshly criticizing it on social media and questioning whether King’s family approved of the ad. Madison Avenue has never been afraid to use an unlikely pitchman to make a point. Chrysler enlisted Bob Dylan to sell cars in Super Bowl XLVIII. The people behind the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner resurrected the image of a deceased Fred Astaire to dance with the appliance in Super Bowl XXXI, But now the advertising industry may have crossed a line when doge tried to use Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to sell cars.

The Fiat Chrysler Group took a section of Dr. King giving one of his final sermons, known as “The Drum Major Instinct,” and wove it into an ad for its Ram Trucks. In the speech, the civil-rights leader told listeners that in order to serve, “you only need a heart full of grace. Soul generated by love.” He also says: “You don’t have to know about Pluto and Aristotle to serve.” The Ram ad ended with an on-screen slogan: “Built to Serve.”

Fiat Chrysler has in recent years become known for filling the Super Bowl ad roster with commercials that are often clever but can sometimes be a bit outrageous. In 2011, the company broke the rules of advertising around the game, taking out a two-minute ad to tout the resurrection of Detroit after a severe U.S. recession. The commercial, backed by a song from Eminem, was inspiring. A commercial that followed the next year led by Clint Eastwood declaring it to be “halftime in America,” sparked debate.

Super Bowl advertisers have used famous words before, and sometime even the famous men who spoke them in the past.

In 2015, Carnival Cruises put together a spot narrated by President John F. Kennedy, using a 1962 speech he made for America’s Cup crews. And Fiat Chrysler had struck a chord in 2013 when it used a chunk of conservative commentator Paul Harvey’s “So God Made A Farmer” speech as the backdrop for a two-minute ad for Ram Trucks. Which said “And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’” said Harvey. “So God made a farmer.” The ad featured many pictures of hard-working agrarians. And many pictures of hard-working Ram Trucks.

After the Ad was released Viewers were taken back. It didn’t take long for social media users to inquire whether King’s family approved of the company appropriating the civil rights leader’s words as a marketing tool.

The King Center also distanced itself from the ad, stating that it is not responsible for approving commercial use of King’s words and images.

Some members of Dr. King’s family agreed. Bernice King, the minister’s youngest daughter, indicated on Twitter that she did not have a hand in approving the commercial. And The King Center, the non-profit founded by Coretta Scott King, also said in the same forum that is “not the entity that approves” the use of Dr. King’s words for entertainment or ads, but someone did give permission.

Fiat Chrysler said it was “honored to have the privilege of working with the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. to celebrate those words during the largest TV viewing event annually. We worked closely with the representatives of the Martin Luther King Jr. estate to receive the necessary approvals and estate representatives were a very important part of the creative process every step of the way.”

Therefore Ram Trucks did have cooperation. Intellectual Properties Management, the entity that manages the King estate, was “pleasantly surprised” to discover a group of volunteer Ram owners that “serve others through everything from natural disaster relief, to blood drives, to local community volunteer initiatives,” said Eric Tidwell, who is managing director of IPM. “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.”

Whether that came through during the Super Bowl is a matter for debate, and every Super Bowl ad roster has a dud — a commercial that angers more than it soothes or sells. Mars Inc. stepped over a line in 2007 when it aired a 30 second Super Bowl commercial for Snickers that showed two men accidentally kissing — drawing protest from groups representing gay Americans. General Motors in that same year ran a Super Bowl ad showing a robot leaping off a bridge in a dream sequence, sparking push back from an anti-suicide group, and even though I do not believe that these polarized reactions where intentional, the fact is this commercial has bought quite a large amount of attention to the Ram trucks and even though they intended to be that Dr. king’s speech talked about serving others and how that’s what they were basing their marketing on many people spoke out against it being used the way it did but in the end it believe the negative backlash is doing them more harm than good regardless of them being right or wrong i don’t feel it was worth 5 million to create a negative image for your company and product and that company really find the line and learn not to cross it

Find The Line

Written by Gauri Rampal