Great Super Bowl ad: “God made a farmer” (video)

2/4/2013 10:51pm by 51

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl last night (I was watching Downton Abbey), so am just catching up with the commercials now.  This is one is great.

It’s a Dodge Ram ad.  Very Americana.  And very nice.  I still think that traditional farming may now be a thing of the past, just like print media.  But I love this ad.  Very well done.  Beautiful really.  Enjoy.

PS Okay someone pointed out on Twitter that there aren’t a lot of black and Latino farmers, or farm workers, in this ad.  Fair point.

Print FriendlyPrint
Tags: , , , , ,


@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

Share This Post
  • pamsfriend

    Here you go John, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exwn6fuF9y0 The rest of the story.

  • Tatts

    I really thought (hoped!) we had heard the last of that right-wing cornball homophobe Paul Harvey when he died. I can’t believe they dug his ass up for a truck commercial.
    What a sock to gut that was, to hear that horrid man again!

  • mirth

    A different, some would say more accurate, perspective of God Made A Farmer.

    • hollywoodstein

      But the real version of how farms work doesn’t sell trucks to suburban white males.

      • mirth

        This ^

  • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

    I felt violated by a Hallmark Card.

  • hollywoodstein

    BTW, I know it’s not everyone’s thing to watch sweaty, muscled millionaires give each other concussions wrestling over a ball, but this year the game was actually better than the commercials.

    • hollywoodstein

      And Beyoncé knocked the lights out.

      • hollywoodstein

        What no love for Beyoncé. I’m not even a fan and I can give her props.

        • hollywoodstein

          Spell check auto corrects the accent for Beyoncé. It’s over, skynet is aware.

          • hollywoodstein

            I crack me up.

            • hollywoodstein

              Well, at least that’s one of us.

              • hollywoodstein

                Ok, putting the scotch back in the cabinet.

  • tupshur

    Tractors rule….we went skiing behind a Steiger after lunch

  • hefetone

    I’m concerned that they didn’t show women farmers, or Black farmers, or gay farmers, or transvestite farmers, or….arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

    • hollywoodstein

      Rub your tummy, you’ll feel better.

    • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

      RuPaul planted some Basil once in her window box.

  • perljammer

    I’m with you on this one, John. One of my nieces is married to a farmer, and yes, I’m talking about a small family farm. Not an easy way to make a living, but they love the life that comes with it.

    For the Paul Harvey haters, I’ll leave you with my favorite PH quote: “Gonads are useful for their purpose, but they’re no substitute for brains.”

    • hollywoodstein

      That’s your quote, really, in defense of Paul Harvey’s homophobic, Christianist agenda? Well, Dog bless you.

      • perljammer

        Excuse me, what defense? I just like the quote. I have no problem with you expressing whatever opinion you might have about Paul Harvey or anyone else. It’s your Dog-given right, after all ;-)

        • hollywoodstein

          Amen.

    • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

      But are delicious fried and served as Prairie Oysters.

    • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

      I remember when I was helping Senator Kennedy’s staff put together the ENDA hearings back in, I think, 1996. One of our witnesses was a farm family from the midwest, I think, and I remember the mom testifying about their annual salary, I want to say it was $12,000 a year. And they had a special needs kid. It was horrifying. I couldn’t believe people lived like this – they were the definition of the working poor. Had a real job, worked their butts off, crazy long days, getting up before dawn, and couldn’t make enough to make ends meet. Remarkable.

      • hollywoodstein

        Sounds like God should have simply made farming easier.

  • Rose

    I love what The Awl did with this:

    http://www.theawl.com/2013/02/so-god-made-a-farmer

    • hollywoodstein

      Hilarious, and closer to reality.

  • draftmama

    I can’t believe you like this ad John – Paul Harvey was a dreadful man and homophobic in the extreme. And I am sick and tired of god being shoved into the public discourse. Since apparently half of Americans don’t have any religious faith at all, Chrysler is pretty stupid pushing this crap. OTOH anyone who buys a Dodge truck is dumber than a post anyway so I guess its a wash lol

    • MyrddinWilt

      I haven’t seen many Dodge Ram’s on farms. The Ford F150 seems to be the unanimous choice for a solid, dependable truck that can deal with rough tracks. Dodge Ram seems to be more popular among tradesmen.

      My wife used to have a Dodge Omni, the thing could not turn a corner without lurching horribly. It managed to combine understeer going into the corner and oversteer going out. It is the only small car I have ever driven that had terrible handling.

      The Haynes DIY service manuals tells you everything that you need to know about how the US automakers kept up with R&D. One manual covers all GM rear drive saloons for a 30 year period. Under the exterior they were all the same.

      Ford moved away from that before GM, Chrysler has yet to really move as far as I can see.

    • http://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKarter Jeffrey Karter

      The “god god god” bit totally put me off of that commercial, so much so that I paused it and waited until I could skip past it (and then went back to see which company sponsored that sermon, so I could avoid them).

  • http://libertyviewmagazine.net/ Tod Westlake

    Paul Harvey was a fascist.

  • hollywoodstein

    Paul Harvey, Paul Harvey’s audience, and Paul Harvey’s God do not support gay equality. Paul Harvey’s the Rest of the Story, often left out important facts to support the prejudices of his audience.
    This very well done ad is brilliant marketing playing on the mythology of the American West, and the American Farmer. If you leave out the history of the genocide of Native Americans, and the rural racism and religious bigotry that often are associated with this demographic, then yes there is a dignity to the resourceful and resilient farmer lifestyle. I’ve lived it and loved it and hope to return to it full time, but let’s not kid ourselves.
    This recycled ad manipulates its audience by appealing to a mostly by-gone myth in order to sell trucks. The fact they throw in a token black man and Hispanic is your tell.

    • hollywoodstein

      Oh, and by the way there is no God. The sooner we can get away from that myth the sooner the world will be a better place from gay rights to global warming.

      • hollywoodstein

        God Bless America.

        • hollywoodstein


          Not perfect, but we need more of this sort of acknowledgement.

          • hollywoodstein

            BTW, it’s worth searching for the longer clip of this which gives context.

    • hollywoodstein

      And the fact that John

      • http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

        Sorry, but I’m not going to celebrate every American holiday by lamenting the Indians. There’s a point at which legitimate progressive concern can become overload. Should we spend Christmas beating ourselves up over the Inquisition? It’s a beautiful well-done ad about a group of people who made an important contribution to our country and our history. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and you have to breathe and admire something on its face.

        And I didn’t know Paul Harvey was a bigot.

        • hollywoodstein

          Well now you know the Rest of the Story.

          • hollywoodstein

            Here’s some more of the rest of the story. Much more realistic about how we get our food.

            or this

            • hollywoodstein

              Pablo Harvey, lol.

              • hollywoodstein

                I love that karmanot loves that I reply to myself.

              • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

                hollywoodstein rules!

              • hollywoodstein

                If only!

  • dula

    God so loved the land that he made a farmer to vote for politicians who will destroy that land for profit:
    http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Farmers-Republican-President/2012/01/11/id/423889

  • Guest

    What God did not make was agribusiness, which benefits from most of the government slush largesse bestowed upon “farmers”. It’s this kind of sentimental rutting that keeps ConAgra and ADM in business.

  • nicho

    Except that almost all the people in the ad were white, while 70 percent of the farm workers in the country are Latino. But if it sells trucks, what the hell.

  • SkippyFlipjack

    btw Paul Harvey has been described as a “conservative radio personality” in articles about the ad, but a) that means old-school conservative, not Glenn Beck-style a-hole, and b) I loved and miss his “Rest of the Story” pieces on local news radio; always interesting stories that enjoyed the treatment of his distinctive voice.

    • hollywoodstein

      Paul Harvey supported a lot of new school, Glenn Beck style a-hole conservative ideas. Don’t kid yourself.

    • OldVet66

      In about 1979 when the deficit was 68 billion, Paul Harvey while supporting candidate Ronald Reagan quipped – “Jimmy Carter is getting drunk on borrowed money” – But five years later when the Reagan/BushI deficit was 280 billion – No problem, Harvey said debt is a sign of a strong economy. Paul Harvey was a Reagan republican, bought and paid for!

  • SkippyFlipjack

    Turns out it’s a remake of a similar video using the same Paul Harvey speech, done by Farms.com two years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuzhwkaNC40

    • hollywoodstein

      See, well written, well practiced performance art.

© 2013 AMERICAblog. All rights reserved. · Entries RSS