We Owe Dodge a Thank You
The year was 2013. I sat on the floor of my Nana and Gramps’ living room while watching the Ravens beat the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Beyonce reunited Destiny’s Child in the half time show, I stuffed my face with chips and homemade salsa, the entire house was filled with conversation and laughter… life was good. However, every person sitting in that room with me went silent during one of the commercial breaks the minute we heard Paul Harvey’s booming voice say, “And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made a farmer.”
The commercial went on, showing images of farmers and ranchers doing their everyday chores. I thought to myself “Wow, NCBA or Monsanto is really stepping their game up.” Then, at the end of the 2-minute commercial, I saw a Dodge Ram truck parked in front of two barns with text in the center of the frame which read, “To the farmer in all of us.”
You could’ve heard a pin drop in that living room for a solid minute after that commercial ended. My dad finally broke the silence, “rewind that, will ya?” he asked Gramps.
I remember when I went to school the following morning, we had a project centered around this commercial in my web design class. I recall going to my gramma and grandpa’s house later that week and talking about this commercial. I remember, every single year since this commercial aired, the amount of times it’s been shared on my Facebook timeline or Twitter feed from other agriculturists.
This commercial — the commercial which was created by a car company about an industry outside their own and aired seven years ago — is the very definition of impactful.
Below is the commercial mentioned in the beginning of this post. Below this video, is the video that got me off on this rant, “Dairy is Scary.” Watch both videos, read the rest of this blog post, and get just as fired up as I am.
The “Dairy is Scary,” video has been floating around my vegan and anti-ag Facebook groups for months now. Because it doesn’t have too many views, I wasn’t concerned — until a friend of mine texted me to say it had been shared in a Facebook group she is in which has nothing to do with animal agriculture whatsoever. This is my concern: more content like this is being put out there than pro-ag content.
However, as someone who loves the agricultural industry and understand the importance of marketing, I am slightly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, that commercial did wonders for farmers and ranchers after it aired. It seemed like there was just a general appreciation for agriculturists for a while. Although this commercial still carries merit among the agricultural community, I would bet it’s not as heavily appreciated by non-agriculturists.
I am grateful for the then-support from non-agriculturists, but I have to ask myself, “what now?”
In my opinion, no other agricultural campaign has impacted the entire nation such as this commercial — not to this caliber, anyway. Sure, we have billboards and some minor ads out there… but what are we doing to market this to the people who DON’T already work in the ag industry?
I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in the ag community as a whole, in myself, in every ag advocate out there because we need to do more. We can’t just cross our fingers and pray we get lucky again with a company such as Dodge who chose to showcase the ag industry — we’ve got to do it ourselves.
So now, I have to ask another question which may cause some tension, but why doesn’t a big ag organization market to people outside of our industry? I know these organizations have the manpower and financial resources, so why isn’t it being done?
The purpose of contributing money to a specific organization can be boiled down to one word: benefits. Sure, some people join for the community aspect of it all while others join just to say they’re a part of something… but it all comes down to “how does this organization benefit me?”
Don’t get me wrong, agricultural organizations have their benefit. You may get a specific certification for your product or are given the opportunity to have your voice heard by political officials, but what are you and your organization doing to advocate for agriculture to those who are agriculturally illiterate?
I’ve preached it in almost every single column I’ve written, but we need to quit worrying about the anti-ags and the pro-ags. We know where those two parties stand, we know we will never be able to change their opinion. We need to focus on that moveable middle, aka those people who have seen the undercover livestock cruelty videos and are currently considering the switch to a non-dairy household.
The number of things which can be done with a little time and effort to help this cause is endless.
Ranchers, I bet at least one teacher at your local elementary school would be willing to let you come speak to their class about the beef industry. The same goes for farmers, every kid wants to sit in a tractor seat and pretend they’re driving it.
FFA kids and 4-Hers, what’s stopping you from setting up a booth at your next community event? It’ll help out your consumer community as well as look great on your scholarship applications.
Ag organizations, what’s holding you back from purchasing some Facebook ads or sending out press releases to more than just agricultural publications? I think you’d be shocked by the amount of people who WANT to know what’s going on in the agricultural industry.
