Social media maelstrom: Did FCA really use MLK's words about the value of service to sell Ram trucks? Yes.

Each year, there's no bigger stage than the Super Bowl for advertisers – and Super Bowl LII was no different. While the tone of some of this year's messages aimed for laughter and nostalgia – not to mention philanthropy in an age of Trumpian tax cuts – one advertisement in particular drew much online criticism.

During the second quarter of Sunday night's Super Bowl game between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, American car maker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) turned to a sermon given 50 years ago by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the value of service and used it as the voice-over to sell Ram trucks.

If there's a wince award to be given – based upon the impact or backlash it made on social media – this would be the winner.

The use of Dr. King's sermon, entitled "The Drum Major Instinct," was part of a five-ad campaign by FCA that also included a classic scene from "Jurassic Park" featuring actor Jeff Goldblum and Queen's much-overused anthem "We Will Rock You" to market its Jeep and Ram brands. At a combined 240 seconds, FCA tied Anheiser-Busch for second-most ad time during this year's Super Bowl, which was broadcast by NBC across the the U.S. and reached an estimated 103.4 million TV viewers, the smallest Super Bowl audience since 2009. Each 30-second Super Bowl commercial cost advertisers about $5 million.

According to AdAge, FCA's global chief marketing officer Olivier Francois is "fond of calling on historical figures and movie and music stars backed by montages of vehicles and everyday people. He has a tendency to source ideas from a wide array of agencies, often making last-minute decisions on the winners."

In "Built to Serve," which was created by Chicago-based boutique agency Highdive, it made use of an MLK speech delivered 50 years ago to the day (Feb. 4, 1968) at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – his last major speech before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 – in which the civil rights icon declared "everybody can be great" because everybody can serve. Throughout the ad spot, there are "26 powerful images of those serving others" – "everyday people," including a farmer, a barber, a fisherman, a teacher, students in a classroom and members of the military. There's even a firefighter lifting a child over his shoulder.

"But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant," MLK is heard (but not seen) saying, "That's the new definition of greatness. By giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve."

The ad reaches its conclusion with a message that to serve "you only need a heart full of grace. Soul generated by love." Then, the last image shown on screen is of the Ram slogan "Built to Serve."

While some liked the ad, calling it "wonderful" and "continuing on your legacy of 'on brand' storytelling," it also drew polarizing reactions, such as "who knew MLK was talking about pickup trucks this whole time" and "MLK wanted equal rights and for me to buy a Dodge Ram." A story about the Ram ad online in Huffington Post suggests "People were, understandably, not very happy with the company's attempt to profit off of one of history's greatest social just advocates."

In today's lead editorial in The New York Times, entitled "Dr. King's Words Turned Upside Down," it wrote: "Ostensibly, the Ram commercial was an appeal for people to serve. But who's kidding whom? The goal was to sell trucks, with Dr. King as pitchman."

Mind you, FCA has often relied upon using message-driven Super Bowl ads to touch on the state of the American economy and farming industry, featuring appearances or off-camera voice-overs by well-known cultural figures like Eminem, Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan, Clint Eastwood and Paul Harvey. These were all critically acclaimed and memorable.

However, now, one need only point toward the irony of the NFL's attempt to monetize MLK's activism while at the same time it systematically colludes against Colin Kaepernick, a black quarterback, and his protests of police brutality and systematic racism.

"Black people can't kneel and play football, but MLK should be used to sell trucks during the Super Bowl," tweeted writer and comedian Akilah Hughes. "Unbelievable."

In an interview with The New York Times published in its Monday print editions, Tim Calkins, a Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management marketing professor, said of FCA's "Built to Serve" ad: "It's the wrong mistake to make given everything that's going on in the U.S. right now. There's so much emotion right now around race in this country that this was a high-risk move, and clearly it's not going over very well.

"I think it was well intentioned, but they're going to have a lot of explaining to do," said Mr. Calkins.

Indeed, especially when you add to the disconnect that MLK's sermon touched on the danger of overspending on items like cars – not to mention people "are so often taken by advertisers."

One thing I learned from looking over a variety of social media in researching this commentary is that many viewers felt that FCA's "Built to Serve" ad, which was meant to inspire about the power of service, cooperation and community, was distasteful because it used the words and voice of a civil rights icon to advertise trucks.

Did FCA cross the line when it used MLK's voice as a means to sell trucks during its 60-second advertisement for the 2019 Ram 1500? I think it did, especially when you consider that the Black Lives Matter movement still march in the streets and NFL players are criticized for taking a knee during the National Anthem in silent protest against racism and policy brutality. I found it insulting to the memory of the revered civil rights leader.

However, if you were to ask Eric D. Tidwell, managing director of Intellectual Properties Management, the licensor of the MLK estate, you would get a different answer from mine.

In a statement released at the height of the backlash Sunday night, the King Estate said it had reviewed FCA's ad before it aired to make sure it met its standards and "found that the overall message of the ad embodied Dr. King's philosophy that true greatness is achieved by serving others.

"Thus we decided to be a part of Ram's 'Built to Serve' Super Bowl program."

Meanwhile, FCA, the parent company of Ram, defended its ad and released a statement Sunday night. It said it was "honored to have the privilege of working with the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. to celebrate those words during the largest TV viewing event annually," and added "Estate representatives were a very important part of the creative process every step of the way."

Fine, but as The New York Times concluded about the "sheer crassness"exhibited by FCA in using MLK's voice and message to sell its Ram product and further its ideals – and I am in agreement – "He did not ask to be a huckster for a line of trucks."

Beyond black and white: searching for a new equality

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / A great American thinker.

Growing up in the valley suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1960s, one of my childhood heroes was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Back then, as Lew Alcindor (his birth name before he changed it after converting to Islam), he was the dominating force in men's collegiate basketball in leading UCLA to three consecutive NCAA championships. I've always been fascinated by Kareem, not only as an athlete but as a human being because he's shown himself to be so much more than a basketball player. He's also a great American thinker.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's new book
focuses on many paramount issues
facing our society, including:
racism, war, death, love, hope

My current reading project is Abdul-Jabbar's latest book, Writings On the Wall: Searching For a New Equality Beyond Black and White. Co-authored with Raymond Obstfeld and published this fall, it's an insightful book that's full of wisdom and conviction and a must read as we transition from eight years of steady and thoughtful leadership by Barack Obama to the chaos-induced "post-truth" presidency of Donald Trump. In Writings On the Wall, Abdul-Jabbar explores how today's America "is a fractured society, sharply divided along the lines of race, gender, religion, political party and economic class." The book is filled with plenty of fresh reporting and serious thinking.

Writings On the Wall focuses on many paramount issues facing our society: racism, abuse of women, why politicians attack the media, war, growing old, death, love, hope. He approaches these issues with both insight and passion and draws upon his life experiences not only as superstar athlete but also as a scholar, celebrity, parent, education advocate, journalist, charity organizer, African-American and a Muslim.

U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, himself a former NBA basketball player, Rhodes Scholar and author, wrote that Abdul-Jabbar "brings his unusual and unique life story to bear on the issues of our day and adds insight for all of us in the process."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar used his trademark
"sky hook" shot to help win six NBA
championships during his 20-year
Hall of Fame career. 

Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. In retirement, he has been an activist and an in-demand speaker, a basketball coach and the author of nine books for adults and three for children, including What Color Is My World?, which garnered the author the NAACP Image Award for Best Children's Book.

As an essayist for such publications as the Washington Post and TIME magazine, Abdul-Jabbar has written on a wide range of subjects, including race, politics, aging and popular culture.

In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador. Last month, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a White House ceremony.

"My real passion for history is in using it as a critical guide to our future, both personal and cultural," writes Abdul-Jabbar.

"History illuminates the safest path in front of us by revealing the pitfalls of the past. It is a secular bible of cautionary and inspiring stories that distills the wisdom of thousands of years of human endeavor into practical lessons about humanity's morals, politics and personal relationships. It is the ultimate self-help book. And right now, given the political and social turmoil in America, we need all the help we can get."

Abdul-Jabbar integrates a lot of popular-culture references in illustrating his ideas. He's a fan of the many artistic ways that our society chooses to communicate both its darkest fears and its brightest hopes. "Pop culture visualizes the public discourse in myriad ways: through music, movies, TV shows, poetry, comic books, literary novels, plays, YouTube, graffiti and new forms of expression that come along every day," he writes. "It provides the embraceable melody of our cultural song – it doesn't matter how profound the words of the song are if no one wants to listen. Whether Tarantino or Truffaut, all points of view and creative presentations have a place. Popular culture is a language that bridges generations, economic statuses and ethnic backgrounds. It provides a common heritage-in-the-making that brings our diverse community closer."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke during the 2016
Democratic National Convention.

Why did he write this book? "For me, there would be no point in writing a book like this unless I had some hope that it might help improve life for Americans," writes Abdul-Jabbar. "I don't imagine anything grand, just that some contentious issues might be clarified, that some people might hear a reasonable voice that isn't from the same background as others they listen to.

"Maybe they will become a little more understanding. Mostly, I hope to expand the discussion about what America is and what it means to be an American. Not with waving flags and sentimental speeches but with a return to exploring the document that defines who we are and what we stand for: the U.S. Constitution."

With his book, Writings on the Wall, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
hopes "to shine a flashlight on the path back to the
Age of Reason and the ideals of the U.S. Constitution."

What does he hope to gain? "Many Americans, as evidenced by the 2016 presidential campaign, abandoned these founding principles of reason to voice their fear, anger, frustration and rage. They openly and proudly expressed their racial bigotry, religious intolerance and misogyny as if the past 100 years of history of incremental social progress had never happened.

"Without even knowing it, they have dragged the American flag through the mud by rejecting all the principles it represents. As cartoonist Walt Kelly said in Pogo: 'We have met the enemy and he is us.' With this book, I hope to shine a flashlight on the path back to the Age of Reason and the ideals of the U.S. Constitution."

Will it work? Abdul-Jabbar is hopeful. "Each generation has to confront these challenging ideas and find ways to incorporate them into their personal belief systems as they go about their daily lives. ... I hope people choose to answer the call and together we ring about the miracle and wonder."

That, I believe, is an American dream worth dreaming.

Opinions that matter: When these coaches speak ...

Gregg Popovich /
"Values are more important to me than
anyone's skill in business ... It tells us who
we are, how we want to live and what kind
of people we are."

It's been a week and counting since Election Day 2016. Dazed and confused, we've been trying to make sense of the new world around us. Many of us have felt sucker punched by Donald Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton. Yet, some who are prominent in our sports culture are taking a stand while demonstrating their political activism. When these coaches speak ... I listen. So should you.

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, a couple of the best and brightest minds in sports, are among the many professional coaches and athletes who have shared blistering critiques following Donald Trump's election as President of the United States last Tuesday. As coaches in the NBA, where 75 percent of the athletes are black, their opinions matter.

In a recently published ESPN interview, Popovich spoke out in frustration of Trump, who will become the 45th President of the United States when he is inaugurated in January.


"I'm a rich, white guy. And I'm sick to my stomach thinking about it," said Popovich, a graduate of the Air Force Academy. "I couldn't imagine being a Muslim right now or a woman or an African-American, a Hispanic, a handicapped person, and how disenfranchised they might feel." He went on to say that for any one in those groups that voted for Trump, "it's just beyond my comprehension how they ignored all that."

On the day after the election, in an interview with The New York Times, Kerr said: "All of a sudden you're faced with the reality that the man who's going to lead you has routinely used racist, misogynist, insulting words. I didn't think this was The Jerry Springer Show." 

Over the past four years, I've had the pleasure of informally meeting Kerr on several occasions. He is a parent of University of California women's volleyball player Maddy Kerr, and my wife and I have season tickets to Cal volleyball. Kerr is warm, friendly and outgoing – and never one to shy away from societal discourse. As the son of an American academic who specialized in the Middle East, Kerr spent much of his childhood in Lebanon and other Middle East countries before returning to the U.S. to study history and sociology and star as a basketball player at the University of Arizona, then embark on a fruitful professional career in the National Basketball Association.

Steve Kerr (right) with Draymond Green /
The Golden State Warriors head coach is not one to shy
away from societal discourse.
"I didn't think this was 'The Jerry Springer Show.'"

"People are getting paid millions of dollars to go on TV and scream at each other, whether it's in sports or politics or entertainment" said Kerr, a five-time NBA champion as a player who coached the Golden State Warriors to a championship in 2015 in his rookie season as a head coach. "I guess it was only a matter of time before it spilled into politics."

Before a recent home game against the Detroit Pistons, whose own head coach Stan Van Gundy also spoke critically about Trump, Popovich admitted he's sick to his stomach, "and not basically because the Republicans won or anything, but the disgusting tenor, tone and all the comments that have been xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic. And I live in that country where half the people ignored all that to elect someone. That's the scariest part of (the) whole thing to me.

"It's got nothing to do with the environment, Obamacare and all the other stuff. We live in a country that ignored all those values that we would hold our kids accountable for."

Popovich believes that Trump's words and actions cannot be overlooked or forgotten. He went on to say this: "Everybody wants him to be successful. It's our country; we don't want it to go down the drain. Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion, but it does not take away the fact that he used that fear-mongering and all the comments from day one. The race-baiting with trying to make Barack Obama, our first black president, illegitimate. It leaves me to wonder where I've been living and with whom I'm living."

The Spurs head coach also showed empathy for minority groups which might be adversely affected by the President-elect's remarks made during his campaign.

"What gets lost in the process are African-Americans, Hispanics, women and the gay population, not to mention the eight-grade developmental stage exhibited by him when made fun of the handicapped person," Popovich said. "I mean, come on. That's what an eighth-grade bully does, and he was elected president of the United States. We would have scolded our kids. We would have had discussions and talked until we were blue in the face trying to get them to understand these things. And he is in charge of our country. That's disgusting."

Popovich's frustration with the President-elect goes beyond partisan politics.

Gregg Popovich /
A Trump presidency, he said, is on the same path as the
Roman Empire. "My final conclusion is, my big fear is,
we are Rome."

"Values to me are more important than anybody's skill in business or anything else because it tells who we are, how we want to live and what kind of people we are," he said. "That's why I have great respect for people like Lindsey Graham, John McCain, John Kasich, who I disagree with on a lot of political things. But they had enough fiber and respect for humanity and tolerance for all groups to say what they said about (Trump)."

Popovich continued, by saying "One could go on and on. We didn't make this stuff up. He's angry at the media because they reported what he said and how he acted. It's ironic to me. It just makes no sense. So that's my real fear. And that's what gives me so much pause and makes me feel so badly, that the country is willing to be that intolerant and not understand the empathy that's necessary to understand other groups' situations.

Popovich was finished – or was he? As he ended his remarks, he had one final thought. He said he was concerned that the United States under a Trump presidency is on the same path as the Roman Empire. "My final conclusion is, my big fear is, we are Rome."

Photos: Courtesy of Google Images.