RAMS Dodge's Super Bowl Commercial Is Drawing Major Backlash
Did you think it was inappropriate?
A Ram truck ad that used a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., is drawing a backlash.
The ad shows people doing service-oriented tasks set against audio of King's speech, which urges people to be "great" by serving the greater good rather than being successful. It was supposed to highlight the volunteer program Ram Nation.
But it was criticized by viewers and ad experts alike for forging too tenuous a connection with the civil rights hero.
On Twitter, most people expressed the idea that using King's speech to "sell trucks" crossed a line between a heartfelt message and exploiting emotions just to push a vehicle.
"They pushed it over the edge," said Kelly O'Keefe, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Brandcenter. "You wanted to root for it because the cause is good, but it just didn't end up fitting the brand, so you ended up feeling a little bit manipulated."
"The use of MLK to promote Ram trucks strikes many people as crass and inappropriate," said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University.
Watching at home, some viewers expressed distaste for the ad as well.
Fiat Chrysler said in a statement that it worked closely with the King estate on the ad.
The firm managing King's intellectual property, Intellectual Properties Management, said in a statement that it approved the ad because it embodied King's philosophy. However, The King Center, a non-profit started by King's wife Coretta Scott King, said it did not approve of the ad.
The ad is not the first one to use a King Speech. Telecom Alcatel used King's "I Have a Dream" speech in an ad that was also approved by IPM.
That ad shows King giving his most famous speech to an empty Mall in Washington D.C. to illustrate the idea that "before you can touch, you must first connect."
