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Silverado Truck Ad Images & 'Our Country' Song Offends a Few
Rosa Parks became an enduring symbol of the American civil rights movement after she refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., 51 years ago. Today, Parks has posthumously become a pitchwoman for a line of pickup trucks.Another civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr., also has been pressed into service by General Motors in a new TV commercial. The spot also includes images of President Richard Nixon, Muhammad Ali, the late race car driver Dale Earnhardt, some dancing hippies and a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. The commercial for Chevrolet's Silverado truck has gotten plenty of airplay -- and a few expressions of surprise, shock and puzzlement -- since it went into heavy rotation during pro football games and the baseball playoffs over the past three weeks. The ad mixes vintage photographs and news footage from the past half-century, accompanied by a rousing John Mellencamp song called "Our Country." Some of the images are uplifting, such as a photo of Parks sitting on a bus and a brief clip of King preaching. Others evoke painful memories, such as Nixon's wave from the presidential helicopter upon his resignation in 1974, U.S. troops in Vietnam, damage from Hurricane Katrina and the twin light beacons at the World Trade Center site that memorialized those killed in the attacks. Posted by: Bobby 2006-10-25 |
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