I have a confession to make, a confession that might even be considered un-American, but here it goes. I have zero interest in football & had absolutely no intention of watching the Super Bowl last Sunday, I wasn’t even going to watch it for the commercials like some people. But when Sunday evening rolled around I found myself with few other options & finally curled up on the couch with my Kindle & flipped to the Super Bowl for some background noise. I couldn’t tell you much about the game, other than the lights went out for a while in the second half & that the Ravens eventually won, but late in the 4th quarter one of the commercials caught my eye.
It started with a still photo of a lone black baldy cow (aka a black cow with a white face) standing in a snowy field, quite the opposite of the rest of the commercials filled with bright colors, special effects & multitudes of actors. I was instantly curious, the commercial was so starkly different from the others before it & suddenly found the TV had my full attention. What played out over the next two minutes gave me goose bumps, utilizing the late Paul Harvey’s speech from the 1978 national FFA convention along with a slide show of still photos Dodge trucks & FFA paid tribute to the farmers & ranchers of America.
For those of us in the agriculture industry, the images & words were familiar. The photos could have well been our friends, neighbors or own families. The early mornings & long days, concluded by a quick supper & driving to town for an evening meeting mentioned in the speech are all too familiar. For those of us who have chosen & embrace this lifestyle, being acknowledged in such a powerful way for our contributions to this country was a bit humbling as we’re used to flying under the radar.
But what about the rest of the country? The people who’ve never chopped ice in below zero weather or kept a newborn calf on the back porch because the heifer that delivered it won’t let it nurse or gotten up at 4 a.m. to cut hay? I don’t know about them. But as one of the people who has grown up on the opposite side & intentionally chosen a career that allows me to continue working in agriculture I hope that they stopped & watched the commercial. I hope that it sparked a conversation around the dinner table or at the office the next morning. I hope that it brought back memories of their cousins that grew up on a ranch, or the cowboy that sat next to them in their college English class or of their time spent in 4-H or FFA. But most of all I’m grateful that Dodge teamed up with FFA to pay tribute to America’s farmers & ranchers on one of America’s biggest stages & a night of record television viewing. So whether you not you saw the video the first time around or not, I encourage you to take two minutes out of your day to check out this great commercial: http://www.ramtrucks.com/en/keepplowing/
