Before halftime in the Super Bowl, a commercial by RAM Trucks aired that can best be described as odd. It’s a commercial for a truck and it’s about greatness, but it is done with a voiceover of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Drum Major Instinct” sermon that was given on Feb. 4, 1968:
The desire for brands to be relevant is often a stupid one. This is a horrible way to celebrate Black History Month. The point of the commercial seems to be to advertise greatness, which the speech is about. But because it’s in relation to a truck, it’s actively trying to sell a product, which is not what King intended. What you get is a commercial that bastardizes the sentiment of the man’s words for profit. It’s disgusting.
To add to the general ridiculousness of the commercial is the fact that it also tries to promote the military, but right in the middle of King’s speech is a criticism of it:
“I must be first.” “I must be supreme.” “Our nation must rule the world.” And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I’m going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift that it has taken.
God didn’t call America to do what she’s doing in the world now. God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.”
The commercial is both a gross misunderstanding of what the original speech is about and another example of the world that we live in where nothing is off limits or respected — a world where the words of Dr. King, which were meant to encourage people to become better human beings by shedding exclusivity and the desire to buy shiny new cars, can instead be twisted to sell cars.