Dear Ram, hands off MLK.
For most brands and commercials, Super Bowl LII was a return to form. Products first. We finally started to see commercials that make sense again. Commercials that didn’t leave you emotionally drained but still left you scratching your head as to what they were selling. In many ways, we were seeing a triumphant return to storytelling with a purpose. Then Ram happened.
Primary Issue. Why? For what purpose? How did MLK make what was essentially a video montage more relevant? If you’re going to invoke the power of Martin Luther King Jr. you darn sure better be actually working for the public good. The speech and the commercial did not need each other. This is pandering at it’s finest. You could almost hear the thought process.
“Built to Serve is our new tag right?”
“Yeah!”
“MLK is cool right!?”
“Unrelated. But yeah!”
“It’s Black History Month right!?”
“Very very unrelated, but sure…”
“PEOPLE LOVE VOICE OVERS RIGHT!?”
“....sir I’m not sure this is the..”
“Remember, So God Made a Farmer!?”
“I mean sure but..”
“WRITE ME A COMMERCIAL ASAP! You got 30 minutes.”
The poor guy tasked with drafting this nonsense, presumably.
Ironically “So God Made a Farmer" voiced by Paul Harvey, by RAM as well, was one of the greatest super bowl commercials I’ve seen in my lifetime. The difference in these two commercials? Love and respect.
Paul Harvey’s recording was a loving ode to farmers and their strength. Each word dripped with respect and adoration for their contribution to America. The commercial in return bounced, leaped, and dragged where appropriate. The photographs lovingly portrayed intimate moments of humanity and tenderness. There was a palpable feeling to respect for the subject matter. The photos enhanced the voiceover, and in return, the voice over celebrated the imagery. It didn’t need music to drive momentum. Paul Harvey did that just fine. Most importantly, for marketing purposes, RAM trucks make perfect sense in the context of farming. So what happened here?
Paul Harvey and Martin Luther King Jr are orders of magnitude different in terms of impact on the American identity. I must be clear here.
“Do not use MLK a prop.”
How can you use Martin Luther King Jr. to sell products? Don’t.
What could’ve been done?
If a Paul Harvey commercial is about respect, a Martin Luther King Jr. commercial must be about work, coming together, and a sober look at our current reality. A proper MLK commercial should show a brand in action. You must actually be working to bring people together. Anything less is superficial. This is a man that put his life on the line and actually died fighting for equality. Here he’s been reduced to a GoalCast video, complete with dramatic music and found video clips of “random folks doing cool stuff.”
We all love firefighters. Was MLK a firefighter? Who knows.
Martin Luther King Jr’s brand was about bravery. We often forget the realities that existed at the time of the civil rights movement. Advocating for racial equity was not just taboo, it was a death sentence. MLK faced threats of death daily. He marched, was beaten, wiretapped and was executed all in the name of equal rights for black people. I can not overstate this enough. Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance was about race. Race. In. America. Not just friendly reconciliation and ignoring the past. Race. If you don’t believe me, here’s a lesser quoted passage from the iconic I Have a Dream Speech.
"But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition." - Martin Luther King Jr.
He had a very specific mission and perspective. An invocation of Martin Luther King Jr. brings with it the weight of his fight and struggle. It brings the context of his life and legacy. Your opportunity was to talk about race, America, and even peaceful protests within the context of the NFL. But no, you went with a video montage. So even if most people can’t exactly place their fingers on it, that’s why we all feel just a little bit dirty after watching it. When we hear MLK we expect courage. Unfortunately, we just got a generic ‘any brand’ ad with the voice of a legend.
Dear Ram, if you want to be important, wonderful. But keep your hands off MLK.
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Eric Thomas is a Branding Specialist and Senior Partner at Saga MKTG based in Detroit MI. He’s also an entrepreneur who never believes "the way it has been done" is the "way it must be done."
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Senior Program Manager | Senior Operations Manager| Expert in Driving Enterprise Projects | MBA in Project Management | Six Sigma Black Belt Certified
6yUsing MLK in the Dodge Super Bowl ad was brilliant but should have never made it to TV. The only reason I say it was brilliant because Dodge has many people talking about this commercial. I believe the ultimate goal was for people to remember the commercial. Personally I do not favor the decision of creating this commercial.
Asset Recovery Specialist
6yI drive a Chrysler and they are just a terrible brand on all levels. No company this awful deserves to exist.
Highlighting human capital in the workplace one employee at a time.
6yI wonder how much did the King family get for using the voice over of Dr Martin Luther King Jr?
CEO / Founder at One World Digital, LLC
6yOur living room literally exploded with anger at them. Of all their agencies and levels of bureaucracy no one said, hmm maybe this isn’t really right?