Greatest takedown of an irritating TV ad you’ll ever see
A car manufacturer caused controversy in the US after it used a Martin Luther King Jr speech for its Super Bowl ad for Dodge Ram trucks.
People said it was wrong to use the civil rights campaigner for commercial ends, particularly because his Drum Major Instinct Sermon took aim at advertisers and “gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion”.
So someone did this to the ad and it’s sheer perfection.
Here’s what he said.
Now the presence of this instinct explains why we are so often taken by advertisers. You know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion. And they have a way of saying things to you that kind of gets you into buying. In order to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey. In order to make your neighbours envious, you must drive this type of car. In order to be lovely to love you must wear this kind of lipstick or this kind of perfume. And you know, before you know it, you’re just buying that stuff. … I got to drive this car because it’s something about this car that makes my car a little better than my neighbour’s car. … I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I’m going to continue to say it to America.
Compare and contrast with what the original ad sounded like.
This is the part of the speech the car maker preferred to use.
If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be recognised, wonderful. If you want to be great, wonderful. But recognise that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness. … By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great. … You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
OMG someone overlayed that ridiculous Dodge/MLK ad with what King actually said about capitalism and car commercials pic.twitter.com/9IB528mCyt
— Astead (@AsteadWesley) February 5, 2018
How can you take a deceased man’s words and use it to project American capitalism which is everything he stood against
— Alicia Sergeant (@AliciaSergeant) February 5, 2018
truly the craziest part about the real Martin Luther King is that he managed to be light years better than the celebrated national figure he's remembered as
— Astead (@AsteadWesley) February 5, 2018
Except some people didn’t see anything wrong with it.
Dodge Ram paid millions to broadcast MLK’s inspiring words to Super Bowl viewers. It reminded me of a PBS ad, which does stuff like that all the time, so, yeah, not getting the all the hate. But, hey, nothing like hating on something to honor MLK.
— AnnabellDec (@annabell_dec) February 5, 2018
Hmm.
Did you really say that ad was meant to honor Dr King? Lordy!
— Joyce (@hikerbj) February 5, 2018
