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.
Now, Parks has posthumously become a pitchwoman for a line of pickup trucks.
Another civil rights icon, the Rev. 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 Nixon, Muhammad Ali, 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 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.
Chevrolet says the spot, called “Our Country. Our Truck,” was created to highlight “key moments” in recent American history and is intended as a patriotic statement.
By including positive and negative historic episodes, the ad is attempting to evoke the notion that “we’ve had some bruises and scars, yeah, but we’ve gotten up and gotten on with it,” says Chevy spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos.
Says Tezanos: “The reason we can do this with the Chevy Silverado is because the whole spirit of the pickup is to get out there, throw stuff in the back and rebuild things.”
Except for a shot of pickups juxtaposed with reconstruction efforts on the Gulf Coast, it’s unclear what association the Silverado or pickup trucks generally have with the events.
Historians might also find a somewhat muddled message in the syncing of Mellencamp’s lyrics with the ad’s images. As the pop singer (who appears briefly in the ad) croons, “I can stand beside ideals I think are right,” pictures of Parks and scenes of happy families flash by. But the next line – “I can stand beside the idea to stand and fight” – is accompanied by shots of Vietnam combat and Ali, suggesting approval for both the war and for the boxer who resisted being drafted into it. (Mellencamp’s manager offered the song to Chevy after it was written, according to Automotive News.)
Nevertheless, Tezanos said the commercial has generated an “overwhelmingly positive” response from consumers.
This group clearly does not include Carie Lemack, a co- founder of Families of September 11. Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, was a passenger on one of the jets that terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center, asks: “Have we become so accustomed to exploiting people’s pain that it is acceptable for a company to make money using images of it?”
