I enjoyed watching the twitter comments scroll by almost as much as the game. Baptists really love their football.
But right after the Dodge Ram Commercial about farmers, my Twitter feed lit up. For the people I follow, that commercial was the unquestioned winner of the night.
Here’s the ad.
Now, here is what Owen Strachan said about the commercial.
The commercial breaks show the polar Americas: one loving nobility & honor & country, the other loving lust & hedonism & self
Nailed it!
GoDaddy.com has stooped as low as they can to sell their product. I will not use their site. Other commercials showed scantily clad women and all sorts of debauchery. But there were also some noble commercials.
Is that where we really are? Two Americas?
Did I spell Strachan correctly?
Yep! … And I believe it’s pronounced “Strawn.” 🙂
Well, Owen got it right about the polar Americas. The only solution is a Third Great Awakening. Suggest that we use Jonathan Edwards’ Humble Attempt which inspired William Carey and a host of others to launch the Great Century of Missions after praying for years, doubtless, pleading the promises that Carey listed. David why don’t you lead a movement after a close study of Edwards work and get all your readers and bloggers to agonizing for God to visit our nation with another such blessing?
Would love to see some further discussion on this. First off – did Owen, Carey, and Edwards call up famous sermons of the past or did they speak in a manner reflective of their contemporary culture? Did they bring in the message from one or two centuries ago or did they craft the needed message for their century?
Also, is the missions model of exporting British and Western culture that was all the rage during the colonial period relevant for today? I’m guessing not. Additionally, what is the depth and breadth of mission work that needs to be tackled? Hudson Taylor did a lot more than church planting and did it in a way that scandalized a lot of his supporters. William Carey was a noted naturalist and botanist as well as a missionary. Let’s do the entire spectrum of mission work.
Did I spell Strachan correctly?
Yes. 🙂
Thirty-five years ago, Paul Harvey gave that famous ‘farmer speech’ at an FFA meeting (Future Farmers of America) . . . the year was 1978
Millions of families and youth-groups were glued to their sets for these. The scorpion, the devil, and the dude in his drawers… How do we approach this?
Dave,
Paul Harvey Knew how to speak.
The commercials are designed to appeal to all groups in our polar America. Companies have experts who know how to reach the
weakness of a person. These experts are the best at what they do.
I didn’t watch the football game yesterday. I don’t even like football.
I did watch Patino and the Louisville Cardinals win again.
I suppose the best salesman of all time is satan, he sold the forbidden fruit to Eve. I suppose the second best sales person would be a woman.
Eve sold the forbidden fruit to Adam.
Polar America? yes.
And for what it’s worth, it’s no longer “Dodge Ram”. The trucks are no longer Dodges .. the brand is now just “Ram”.
Much like the Viper, which is no longer a Dodge, either. It’s just the SRT Viper.
As a disgruntled and dissatisfied owner of a “Chrlysler” minivan, I can tell you that dissociating from the company name is probably a good publicity move.
Commercials are reflective of the cultural sensibilities of the demographic groups they target for sales. Given the divergence of sales themes, I’d say we are fairly polarized. Chuck Colson pointed out in 2005 that the process of secularization (that’s causing the polarization) could make America ungovernable, and I heard him reiterate it not long before his death. We’ve always been polarized to one extent or another, but in previous times we have tended to hold to what is noble and honorable. And what is noble and honorable has entailed the recognition that the self-identified God-given civil liberty codified in our constitution is mitigated by our responsibility to uphold the same. However, the polarization has centered on the notion that the responsibility we have to defend our civil liberty is mitigated by the liberty itself. This is why some of our fellow citizens have such strange notions that our liberty will not be jeopardized if we try not to defend it or that a woman’s choice is more important than the life of her unborn baby. What’s important to these people is not fulfilling duty through sacrifice for the common good but fulfilling our own selfish lust and hedonism over and against everyone else’s selfish lust and hedonism.
Excellent article that Owen Strachan wrote, building on the theme of the tweet.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/02/05/super-bowl-ram-harvey-farmer