I had the unfortunate displeasure of seeing Chevy’s “Our Country. Our Truck.” television spot again today. I was going to write up a dissection of it, but I see that several outlets rightly butchered Chevy for it a couple months ago.
Slate – Can Rosa Parks Sell Pickup Trucks?
New York Times – American Tragedies, to Sell Trucks
Bonus: How Chevy slightly modified the campaign to target Canada:
Macleans – This is Theiiiirrrrr Country
P.S.
I can’t help but also be reminded of a punchline David Cross delivered on his album It’s Not Funny. Cross describes seeing a commercial for electric scissors during an episode of the disgraceful The Simple Life and vows to think of that image when President George W. Bush tells people that the “terrorists hate our freedom.”
The punchline? “I hate our freedom! Me, little ol’ me! I’m an American. I fuckin’ hate it! That’s all we’ve done with it? We’re fucking assholes, man!”
Indeed. It doesn’t get much lower than exploiting a century of hardship, struggle and death in order to sell a few gas-guzzling pickup trucks. But I guess there’s nothing more American than exploitation, right? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a strong urge to vomit.
