Posted on 02/04/2013 1:11:11 PM PST by drewh
An iconic radio voice took the cake, as Dodge Ram’s “So God Made a Farmer” spot with Paul Harvey as the voice over was the highest-rated commercial during Super Bowl XLVII according to ADBOWL, the original advertising ranking website for consumers developed in 2002 by McKee Wallwork & Company.
It wasn’t flashy or filled with special effects, but Dodge Ram’s Super Bowl spot featuring the late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s tribute to U.S. farmers won the hearts and minds of viewers Sunday night.
The two-minute spot featured a series of stark photos of farmers at work. Along with a montage of still images, Harvey’s distinctive voice delivers the narration: his “So God Made a Farmer” speech, which he gave in 1978 at the National Future Farmers of America Convention. He died in 2009 at age 90.
The Ram Truck brand commissioned 10 noted photographers including National Geographic icon William Albert Allard and renowned documentary photographer Kurt Markus to document American farm life, yielding a beautiful and comprehensive catalog of farming images. Many of these artful and compelling still images provide the visual mosaic for “Farmer;” Harvey’s passionate oration provides the narration.
In this latest extension of the brand’s Guts, Glory, Ram campaign, the video uses slices of farming life to remind us of our shared identity and character, the greatness born out of perseverance and determination and the rewards that come from hard work.
“Farmer” was created in partnership with The Richards Group/Dallas. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMpZ0TGjbWE&feature=player_embedded
The spot immediately set Twitter ablaze, with viewers registering their overwhelmingly positive reaction to the commercial.
The Ram brand has declared 2013 the year of the farmer, and is kicking off a year of programs dedicating to highlighting the importance of farmers.
As of 11:00 MT, the top 5 ads as ranked by ADBOWL voters on a five point scale were:
1 Ram Truck: Farmer 4.2121
2 Tide: Miracle Stain 4.1356
3 Budweiser: The Clydesdales – Brotherhood 3.9735
4 Coca-Cola: Security Camera 3.6047
5 Kia: Space Babies 3.5926
ADBOWL Winners 2002-2012:
2012 – Volkswagen’s “Dog Strikes Back”
2011 – Volkswagen’s “Imperial March”
2010 – Snickers’ “You’re Not You”
2009 – Bridgestone’s “Taters”
2008 – Budweiser’s “Clydesdale Team”
2007 – Bud Light’s “Rock, Paper, Scissors”
2006 – Bud Light’s “Hidden Fridge”
2005 – Anheuser-Busch’s “Applause”
2004 – Budweiser’s “Donkey Dream”
2003 – FedEx’s “Castaway”
2002 – M&M’s “Chocolate on Your Pillow”
What do you want to bet the Chrysler ad guy is packing up his stuff from his office and being escorted off the company premises by a SS bruiser as we speak?
Here’s one...
The audio is of Paul Harvey explaining how he would destroy us [America] if he were Satan…
“If I were the devil, I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree—Thee. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first—I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.” To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to pray after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…’
And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors on how to lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d pedal narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.
If I were the devil I’d soon have families that war with themselves, churches that war that themselves, and nations that war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flame. If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, and neglect to discipline emotions—just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.
Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography—soon I could evict God from the courthouse, and then the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.
If I were the devil I’d take from those, and who have, and give to those wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. What do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would question against extremes and hard work, and Patriotism, and moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were to devil I’d keep on doing on what he’s doing. Paul Harvey, good day.”
I went to Youtube today to watch a video and that particular Ad was the lead in to the video. The Ad was both classy and great........
Up here we say that the only thing stupider than a cow is a farmer.
It's a joke. Loved the ad. I'm a Ford guy, myself, but Chrysler showed some savvy with this ad. I think they might just sell a few trucks because of it.
Sure it does, it was clean, nostalgic and we're all talking about it aren't we? And we know it was a Dodge truck............
A perfect commercial.....
You can start by maybe driving out to Logan Kansas, it's in the far N.W. corner of the state and see for yourself........
...and if you do, you can park your car in the middle of the street.
I loved Paul Harvey’s ‘The Rest of the Story.’
I miss Paul Harvey as much as I miss Reagan.
Harvey was an American wordsmith; a modern Mark Twain.
His voice was simply riveting.
And no one was better or sneakier in slipping a commercial into his newscast. Rush is a rank amateur when it comes to working in his Lifeguard commercials.
I wonder what Paul Harvey’s son is doing?
I miss Paul Harvey so very much.
Bookmark
The sugar industry gets a tariff that raises the price of foreign sugar to a level where the US producers can compete. To my knowledge, there are no programs similar to the rice, corn and bean programs for sugar. The reason given is that eliminating the tariff would cause cane and sugarbeet producers (and their co-op owned processors - some very large capital investments) to go belly-up. And there’s ample historical evidence to support that view -eg, lamb/wool producers were put out of business by the hundreds in the west in the 90’s when import tariffs were lifted and Australia flooded our market with their stored wool and NZ lamb producers used their currency arb to their advantage to undercut our lamb producers.
Dairy compacts and federal market orders... that’s a rather complicated deal, on which I could write a book, but I’m sure you won’t want to read. The Cliff Notes summary goes like this:
Marketing orders came about during the Depression to stabilize milk production, and used to have more impact on farm-gate prices for milk than they now do. The amount of subsidy the Feds kicked in used to be much higher than it is today. If the current trend continues, there will come a point in the near future where the price supports can be kicked away. The federal buying of milk products (cheese, dry milk, etc) when milk prices fall below established order prices might continue under the aegis of “feeding the poor,” or it might not. Personally, after seeing over $6T of ‘relief’ go to ‘the poor’ in my lifetime, I’ve come to the conclusion that we should not be feeding the poor, as it just encourages more of them to breed or show up, but that’s another topic for another day.
The Northeast Compact came about in the 90’s under the idea that declining milk prices were leading to loss of farms in the region. The NDC ended up being shut down in 2001 (if memory serves) without much impact on national prices of milk, or on farm loss. Regional milk prices for consumers were probably increased slightly over a non-NDC scheme... but it wasn’t a huge increase.
The net:net result of the compacts and marketing orders is that prices for consumers might be higher than they would be in a theoretical “free market,” but the only truly “free market” for farm products exists within the fevered imagination of economists. After looking long and hard at the market order system, I think the overall effect is to stabilize milk prices and production, which would otherwise be subject to some pretty ferocious swings if the free market theorists got their way and regional dairy operations converted to the “California model” of dairy production, which operates under no such thing as a “free market,” but instead under a state pricing scheme. California dairy operators do indeed have significantly lower costs of production than smaller dairies in other regions, but they go through regular boom/bust cycles, where some of them flat-out go out of business, leaving lots of local suppliers and industries SOL on unpaid bills from these high-cash-flow, low-margin operations. The land ends up getting sold in BK, which results in fewer dairies, which results in more opportunity for consumer price swings. One particular vicious price swing in the 90’s saw cheese prices shoot up into the teens per pound for consumers, as an example. Prices of pizza all over the west went up as people put on a “cheese surcharge” to handle the price increase. Since then, I’ve just seen more of the same swings out of California - lather, rinse repeat.
Net:net - these two crops/products receive little money from the feds in direct payments compared to the Big Six; rather, they get a favored market into which to sell their goods that costs consumers more than they might otherwise pay in a theoretical world advanced by economists, and they get price “floors” for their products. This “price support” system is how the FDR-era farm programs worked, which the GOP used to hate with a passion... and which they replaced with “Freedom to Farm.”
The fallout from “Freedom to Farm” has seen the Feds sink more money into ag subsidies than if we’d stayed with the Depression-era system.
So the GOP “solution” to Depression-era farm programs was to replace them with something much more expensive. Brilliant own goal, I’d say.
You only know it’s a Dodge truck if you don’t blink at the wrong time. A good commercial doesn’t allow you to miss what is being advertised with a stray glance away from the TV.
That’s what makes the commercial interesting, but the goal of commercials is to sell a product, if you can get through 99% of the commercial with no idea what they’re advertising it’s a terrible commercial. Good piece of extremely short film though.
I wouldn’t say “still” I’d say “again”. In between seeing that commercial and seeing this thread I did not think about it or discuss it. In between making that comment you replied to and coming back to the thread this morning I did not think about it or discuss it. And more than likely there will be no more discussion of it after this. And most importantly it gives me no desire to buy a Dodge Truck. Bad commercial.
Don’t know what your life-long background is, but you are not paying attention.
The food you eat, the clothes your wear, the shoes that protect your feet and the belt that holds up your pants (hopefully—I cannot stand butt cracks) all come from farm products.
You must be a city person who has never spent any time on a farm or with farmers.
The ad highlighted how hard these people work to do what they love best and what they do best-—grow things and provide food for people all over the world.
None of these farms run without good trucks—be it Dodge Ram, Chevy or Ford. Certainly, they don’t do their chores with a Kia!!
IMO, this ad was the best ad I have seen in over 40 years, bar none.
I applaud Dodge Ram for recognizing the American farmer—especially when the Federal government & the Enviros have done so much to destroy the farming in the USA.
IF you could spend an uninterrupted summer WORKING on a ranch or farm, you might see what this ad was trying to honor.
I didn’t say anything bad about farms or farmers, and as I said the monolog was very nice, and the images they attached to it were good. As a micro-short film it’s quite excellent. But the point of an advertisement is to sell a product. A 2 minute long film that only shows the product being advertised for a couple of seconds at the end (don’t blink or you’ll miss it), while an excellent film is not a good ad no matter how excellent a film it is.
heave bails””
heave BALES
2011 – Volkswagen’s “Imperial March”
This one’s really cute...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OANj832lDpA
That ad gives a lot of people a warm feeling, and some of them will remember that warm feeling when they see a Ram truck. That ad creates the linkage.
That’s what good ads are supposed to do.
Ads are supposed to sell a product. If in 2 minutes of ad your product is only on screen recognizably for a couple of seconds then people who missed it DON’T develop a warm feeling or linkage, because they never saw what that linkage is supposed to be to. Really the problem with it was the back loading, if you can actually see a logo every time they show a truck, and there’s a truck on screen at least half the time it’s a great ad. But because the logo is at the blink at miss it level it’s a terrible ad.
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