{"id":2579,"date":"2018-02-05T22:35:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T06:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2579"},"modified":"2018-02-05T22:35:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T06:35:50","slug":"making-dr-king-a-pitchman-turning-his-words-upside-down-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2579","title":{"rendered":"“Making Dr. King a Pitchman, Turning His Words Upside Down”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By The Editorial Board, Editorial, Feb.6, 2018<\/p>\n

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William Bernbach, a titan of Madison Avenue who died in 1982, said, \u201cIf your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.\u201d The spinmeisters for Ram trucks must have taken Mr. Bernbach\u2019s admonition to heart. With a Super Bowl commercial<\/a> on Sunday that used as its soundtrack a sermon<\/a> delivered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years earlier to the day, they got the notice they wanted. Much of the reaction, though, amounted to a richly deserved thumbs-down.<\/p>\n

The sermon was Dr. King\u2019s \u201cDrum Major Instinct<\/a>\u201d speech, given in Atlanta in 1968 two months before his assassination. Everybody, he said, had this instinct \u2014 \u201ca desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first.\u201d But it had to be harnessed, he said as he went on to equate greatness with service to others. Ostensibly, the Ram commercial was an appeal for people to serve. But who\u2019s kidding whom? The goal was to sell trucks, with Dr. King\u2019s voice as pitchman.<\/p>\n

The sheer crassness led to instant condemnation on social media, including speculation about what might be next \u2014 maybe trotting out James Baldwin to hawk \u201cThe Firestone Next Time\u201d? Critics were hardly mollified by word that Ram had the blessing of Intellectual Properties Management, the licenser of Dr. King\u2019s estate. The estate has not always been his staunchest guardian against posthumous commercialization.<\/p>\n

It might serve history a tad more faithfully to note other appeals that Dr. King made in that Feb. 4, 1968, sermon. For one thing, he was appalled by the way many people went into hock to buy vehicles they couldn\u2019t possibly afford: \u201cSo often, haven\u2019t you seen people making $5,000 a year and driving a car that cost 6,000? And they wonder why their ends never meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re at it, he also didn\u2019t think highly of advertising gurus \u2014 \u201cyou know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion.\u201d He continued: \u201cThey have a way of saying things to you that kind of gets you into buying. In order to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey. In order to make your neighbors envious, you must drive this type of car. In order to be lovely to love, you must wear this kind of lipstick or this kind of perfume. And you know, before you know it, you\u2019re just buying that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

For that matter, Dr. King might well have been talking about a president a half-century in the future when he expounded on the need to rein in the drum major instinct, for otherwise it becomes \u201cvery dangerous\u201d and \u201cpernicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever heard people that, you know \u2014 and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve met them \u2014 that really become sickening because they just sit up all the time talking about themselves?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they just boast and boast and boast. And that\u2019s the person who has not harnessed the drum major instinct.<\/p>\n

\u201dIn the sermon\u2019s finale, Dr. King said that he thought about his own death and funeral. It led to these ringing words: \u201cIf you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not ask to be a huckster for a line of trucks.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By The Editorial Board, Editorial, Feb.6, 2018 William Bernbach, a titan of Madison Avenue who died in 1982, said, \u201cIf your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.\u201d The spinmeisters for Ram trucks must have taken Mr. Bernbach\u2019s admonition to heart. With a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday that used as its soundtrack a sermon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2580,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions\/2580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}