PressEthic

Chevrolet recently unveiled a new advertising campaign for their Chevy Trucks that features a song by John Cougar Mellencamp entitled "Our Country." The commercial includes a montage of historical anecdotes, from the Vietnam War to Hurricane Katrina and even 9/11. Has Chevrolet gone too far?

David Carr of the New York Times thinks so. An article in The Times today entitled American Tragedies, to Sell Trucks criticized the new commercial for using negative images to sell cars. Carr asserts,

Consumers are used to General Motors wrapping itself in the flag, having been variously urged to “Keep America Rolling” for “An American Revolution” and to listen to “The Heartbeat of America.” But this new version of patriotism took on a more desperate air, all but setting the flag on fire to honor it.

As the commercial begins, an industrial history rolls out, touching the usual icons of the Statue of Liberty, busy factory workers and Americans at their leisure. But then a more conflicted narrative emerges, quickly flashing on bus boycotts, Vietnam, Nixon resigning, Hurricane Katrina, fires, floods, then the attacks of Sept. 11, replete with firefighters.

All that’s missing is a plague of locusts, until the commercial intones “This is our country, this is our truck” as a large Silverado emerges from amber waves of grain.

The commercial can be seen on YouTube here. Having an advertising background myself, I was disturbed by the ad. The article continues:

Critics have attacked the ad, in part because it also invokes Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to sell trucks. But something more subtle, perhaps more cynical, may be at work here: the image of America (and its leading auto manufacturer) as victim, mostly of itself, but still worth loving.

“The first time I saw it, I thought, holy mackerel, they are using negative images to generate positive emotions,” said Bob Garfield, the advertising critic of Advertising Age. “I have never seen that in a commercial.”

“I feel a little violated when I watch it,” he said. “I don’t mind when they have a tent sale on President’s Day, but those guys have been dead for 200 years. I’m not sure I’m ready for a Rosa Parks sale-a-bration.”

I think Chevrolet has gone over the edge with this one. Advertising is at times political and even perhaps controversial, but appealing to emotional distress and a backwards view of patriotism to sell trucks seems irresponsible and insensitive. Carr's article in the Times is clearly biased against Chevrolet and the new advertising campaign, but I am not sure that in this case there isn't a place for such a bias.