MattyG

The irony in the Jeep water-cross and jump the waterfall ad is that it reinforces the idea of stupid idiots trashing nature for the sake of being able to do it. Do you need to go cross fairly shallow water and jump a stepped waterfall for no other reason than to do it? What about some trout fisherman who might like that stream, or maybe hike into that place and take some nice pics? This plays into redneckism at its worst. Trash nature because you've got some vehicle that can do it.

mmarshall

I'm not a terribly big fan of off-roading myself, but I fail to see how it compromises nature. It's going to take considerably more than two simple Jeep-tracks to do any appreciable damage.

MattyG

That's right, until it becomes incremental and adds up. Every yahoo, redneck and Madmax type does it over and over again. There are designated trails to do that, but the Jeep ad doesn't tell you that unless you try and read fine print.

Heck, I'm surprised that the Hillybilly Handfishing, or the Duck boys weren't in the ad, lol.

Then, you have ongoing damage. Why don't we get rid of catalytic converters, emissions controls etc. because - you know, it's just my big gas guzzler and it doesn't matter. Just me and two buddies. Not a million people.

ArmyofOne

I guess I really dont see the problem with the ram ad?

its not like MLK was a bad dude. I mean the guy was THE icon of the american civil rights movement. Whats wrong with honoring that?

Johnhav430

Grateful Dead archivist is a vegetarian, and he told a story how he recently reconnected with his buddy who got him into being a vegetarian more than 20 years ago, thanks to social media. The buddy is running a meat shop on Long Island...(I'm young enough to have experienced when concert tix became impossible to obtain, but I'm old enough to find it odd how CDs are not available, that there are pre-lists and subscriptions, and then they wind up on eBay for 5x face value--that is so odd of a concept to me, CDs are limited hahahahahahahaha)

True we may not need to go off road or through a river up to the window sills in water, but do we need more than a CR-V or RAV4 that cannot pull itself up an incline if there is snow?

mmarshall

Like I said earlier, I think that was probably the impetus of the ad.....to try and get more African-Americans into pick-ups. The ultimate goal for Ram, of course, is to try and sell more trucks and make more money, not necessarily get into the MLK issue. Large body-on-frame trucks and SUVs, in this category, are immensely profitable to automakers, who earn thousands of dollars on each one sold, even after incentives. But, for a number of reasons (one can speculate all day long on them, so I won't get into that here)...the non-commercial pickup market has generally been white males.

rkyat

Jurassic world Jeep ad

LexBob2

This ad hasn't been mentioned much in the post Super Bowl recaps. I thought it was clever and entertaining.

tex2670

MLK's family didn't see an issue either. I just don't see how using the words of a civil rights icon to sell more trucks is "honoring" MLK? "Official Truck of Civil Rights?"

MattyG

I know you mean that in a totally objective and analytical way. I'm just so surprised that at least two of the finger wagging, hand-wringing, pearl-clutching shouty-heads have not piled on you yet for saying that. MIA, I guess . After all, Lexus too, has a tie-in with the big movie that's coming up this year.

At any rate, it now appears that Ram advertising types may have known that this would be a problem, and wanted to troll social media for some traffic. Not all of the MLK family actually approved, only the for-profit licencing side. Bernice King already called them out on it.

mmarshall

Yes...as you (correctly) noted, it's a moneymaking issue about selling trucks, not a racial one. People of all skin colors carry the same color money.....green.

Doesn't surprise me. Even though it is primarily a money-making ad, I, like her, wasn't terribly impressed with it....I've seen lots better ads, especially by Super Bowl standards.

Don't worry....in any normal evening, somebody in Car Chat, somewhere, will find something to call me out on. I'm used to it.....it just comes with the trade.

MattyG

^^^ Very true. The Ram ad actually has had a bit of the opposite effect in terms of what people might focus on - the Jeeps sort of get lost in all this. This thread sort of shows how much we're talking about that ad vs the thread title about best ads. It means the other ads weren't that good. Super Bowl LI was also distinguished by not being that great for ads, but being a great game. Same here. Fantastic game. Meh! for ads. So Ram gets the nod for controversey and people upset about it.

mmarshall

Actually, when I saw how well the Wrangler ad crossing the river-bed on the rocks was done, I almost forgot about the others LOL.

There's no denying the Wrangler's capability off-road, despite its rather primitive comfort level in regular driving conditions, on pavement. That's why it's been such a bit hit with the part of the off-road crowd that can't afford to spend 90-100K or more for a Land Cruiser, LX570, Land Rover, or Mercedes G-Wagen.

ArmyofOne

i guess I just dont make that connection in that way.

but then I don't go looking for issues where there shouldnt be any.

They probably thought it would be good because feb is black history month. But i guess not everybody sees it the way i do.

tex2670

That's fine. Then give me a commercial honoring MLK and Black History Month without hocking pickup trucks. That would be a fine commercial.