Lol, new Chevy Truck ad pisses off Slate

[MrAngryFace]

Chevy's going to tell us what America is. And what exactly is America, in Chevy's view? Well, for one, of course, it's a light-duty, full-size pickup truck.

http://www.slate.com/id/2151143/?GT1=8702

[The Fake Shemp]

There's plenty of room to let Rosa Parks sit in the back, I don't know what's the big deal.

[MrAngryFace]

Mellencamp sings, "I can stand behind ideals I think are right" while we see Rosa Parks sitting on a bus. Fine, good, terrific. I think we can all stand behind the ideal of racial equality.

Next he sings, "And I can stand behind the idea to stand and fight," while we see soldiers in a field in Vietnam, helicopters chop-chopping above their heads. Wait, what? Is this a defense of the Vietnam War? A declaration that we pulled out too soon—should have been more willing to "stand and fight"? Is it a sly statement about our present Iraq dilemma? Is Chevy making the salted peanuts argument?

Next line: "I do believe there's a dream for everyone." Here we see MLK, dancing hippy freaks at Woodstock, and 1960s peace marchers. OK, so there's room in Chevy's worldview for some anti-violence memes, too. But are we meant to celebrate America both for getting into Vietnam and for getting out of it?

Here's where it gets introspective. Mellencamp sings, "This is our country" while we watch Richard Nixon, post-resignation, waving from the helicopter that will whisk him away from the White House in disgrace. That's our country? Shamed politicians? Drab, mid-'70s melancholia? Bummer, man.

But it gets worse. Mellencamp blah-blahs some empty lines like "from the East Coast, to the West Coast," while the ad shows footage of: 1) raging California brushfires, 2) Dale Earnhardt's stock car (presumably before he crashed it into a wall and killed himself), 3) Katrina floodwaters, 4) the 9/11 memorial. Yikes!

Grade: D. Automotive blog Jalopnik reports that an early version of the ad included footage of a nuclear mushroom cloud. Well, that would have brightened things up. I wonder if they could squeeze in the Rodney King beating and the Abu Ghraib photos, too.

[The Fake Shemp]

Also, this ad would be better if it the pickup truck had Rosa Parks, Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King in it, all decked out in Vietnam combat gear, jettison out of the rubble of the World Trade Center and rocketing through the flooded streets of New Orleans, killing looters and saving the elderly and children.  It'd end with MLK firing a machine gun in the air, Nixon waving an American flag and Rosa Parks making out with John Mellencamp in the back of the truck in a field of wheat.

[TVC15]

Also, this ad would be better if it the pickup truck had Rosa Parks, Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King in it, all decked out in Vietnam combat gear, jettison out of the rubble of the World Trade Center and rocketing through the flooded streets of New Orleans, killing looters and saving the elderly and children.  It'd end with MLK firing a machine gun in the air, Nixon waving an American flag and Rosa Parks making out with John Mellencamp in the back of the truck in a field of wheat.

And at the end of the commercial, Rosa, Nixon, MLK, and Mellencamp all get out of the Chevy, open the gas tank, start stabbing arabs in the jugular and use the gushing wounds to gas up the truck.

[The Fake Shemp]

Haha, I just told MAF via MSN that they should become a fighting team that kills terrorists and shit.

Chevrolet's new motto should be:

CHEVY - WE BUILD CARS FOR FUCKING AMERICANS

[Phoenix Dark]

There's plenty of room to let Rosa Parks sit in the back, I don't know what's the big deal.