Not So Much: Dodge's Use of God's Name to Sell Trucks

Yes, God did make a farmer. The farmer's name was Adam. Someone should have told the late Paul Harvey of that fact when he wrote his essay years ago.

But even overlooking that, I don't think that God's Name was given to the human race to sell Dodge trucks, as it is in the long-form commercial Chrysler unveiled during the Super Bowl, images of farmers accompanied by Harvey reading his essay, God Made a Farmer.

God gave His Name to us so that we can pray to Him, praise Him, and thank Him. Any other use of God's Name is useless and so, disrespectful.

There's a commandment for that: "You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain." (See here, checking out the Second Commandment and its meaning.)

Did Dodge violate that commandment with its Super Bowl ad?

God needs to judge that.

But if I were a Dodge executive and the idea for this ad had been pitched to me, I'm sure that I would have felt at least a little squeamish about it.

For all its invocation of God's Name, it's really about glorifying not the Maker of the farm, but the one entrusted with taking care of the farm...and those men who identify with Harvey's farmer, guys who perceive themselves to be rugged individuals, sometimes conquerors of the world who tough things out.

Like lots of advertising then, the ad appeals to our egos or our fantasies about ourselves. And it continuously invokes God as second fiddle in its paean to tough guys.

All for the purpose of selling us trucks.

Whether the Chrysler folks feel good about that or not, they'll have to answer for themselves.

But as for me, I am definitely not down with it!