So God Made A Farmer, Then Dodge Made An Ad

Last night, Dodge's "God Made A Farmer" Super Bowl ad rocked me, and likely, millions of other people with its poignant message and eloquent deliver by Paul Harvey.  

Today, according the Hulu, it's the highest rated ad that ran last night.  Why?  The ad was stunningly effective because it was authentic, pulled on our values and deceptively simple.  The grainy sound was from a tape (yes, a cassette recording) of Paul Harvey's keynote address at the 1978 Future Farmers of America annual convention.  No clean up, you can hear the hiss and the echo that comes with a tape deck setup at the back of the room (and not being directly fed from a mixing board.) 

Instead of fancy effects, the ad features high quality pictures, to keep us tracking with Paul's narrative.  The ad also works because, much like last year's "It's Halftime America" ad, it speaks to a crisis in our country that an underdog is facing.  For farmers, they face less resources to do their job, at a time we need them more than ever.  In the 4-Hour Work Week culture our kids live in, farmers work around the clock and are proud of it.  

Former Coke CMO Sergio Zyman once wrote that "good advertising is a service.  It adds value when you consider, purchase or use the product." In this case Dodge hit a home run, even though I'll never likely buy one of their trucks.  Even in non-consideration, my affinity to the brand increased, which likely has it's own long term value to Dodge.  

Hulu's Ranking of Top Super Bowl Ads of 2013 

And God Made A Farmer (ad) 

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Comments

[chaussures vans]

Wow, das war ziemlich interessant. Inspiring, wie gut. Thanks for sharing wie inspirierende Erfahrung mit uns. Du hast recht, du wirklich Leben retten. Great blog, congrats.

[tee shirt pas cher]

Du punktoj mi konsentas kun:

1) Kontraste kun la duona tempo en Ameriko ad kie ni estas forĝi nia propra solvo el la krizo de ni mem kreis, la "Dio" kiu faris la farmisto estas intertempe en nia reakiro. Fundamente malsama POV

2) La infanoj hodiaŭ laboras ĉirkaŭ la horloĝo, ĝuste kiel farmistoj, kaj estas ankaŭ fieraj pri tio. Anstataŭ esti en "naturo horloĝo" estas en la "interreto" horloĝo. Metu vian orelon al lia tero, vi auxdos la zumado.

[juicy couture handbags]

Vau, se oli aika mielenkiintoinen.

[maillot equipe national]

jó információ, én llike nagyon sokat, köszönöm.

[sac longchamp bubble]

A cikket érdemes olvasni, köszönöm szépen! Fogom tartani az új cikkeket.

[E5]

Too bad the family farmer is disappearing. I don't think even Paul Harvey believes God made a Con Agra or Tyson Foods corporate executive.

[Justin McCullough]

Hi Tim,
I too, thought the ad was well done. But, I was surprised when I started looking around online. Finally when I realized that Dodge was actually donating $1 Million to FFA I couldn't help but wonder why it wasn't even hinted at in the spot or at least in the ending tag of the commercial or youtube.

From my research and this case study http://justinmccullough.com/marketing-case-study-dodge-super-bowl-farmer-ad that the Richard Group just didn't cover the basics.

I found this to be an excellent case to argue the importance of emotional marketing (which Dodge completely nailed) and the importance of Content Marketing which Dodge was just inches away from nailing as well. In the end, though, a spot that could have built a community was instead relegated to just a branding ad. Lots of money to have come so far, in my opinion, to not just go ahead and nudge the viewer into action.

I'm in agreement with you, though, the execution of the spot was wonderful. Paul's speech was captivating and stirring. Just the sort of message America needs to have in front of them. Family, Values, God and Hard work you can be proud of. Not just, for farmers, but thank God for our farmers!

Thanks Tim.

[Sid Raisch]

Our economy is shifting in its essence to global multi-national suburban/urban while there is also the interest and trend in food of conscious consumption - know your farmer, slow food (whole food)and buy local (slow money). I think that Chrysler/Ram recognizes that this is rising into the mainstream and got in. Of course it makes them look good to farmers when they make farmers look good to consumers.

I believe this is a crossroad to High Tech/ High Touch that John Naisbitt wrote about in Megatrends back in the 80's. As Rufus Dogg already commented, you can hear the buzz of high tech when you put your ear to the ground. That buzz needs a relief valve even if this is just a commercial.

[Rufus Dogg]

Two points I disagree with:

1) Unlike the Halftime in America ad where we are forging our own solution out of the crisis of our own making, the "God" that made the farmer is intervening in our recovery. Fundamentally different POV

2) The kids today are working around the clock, just like farmers, and are also proud of it. Instead of being on "nature's clock" they are on the "internet" clock. Put your ear to their earth, you will hear the buzz.