One of the most talked about, viewed, watched and shared Super Bowl Commercials this year is about farmers. It is a perfect example of advocacy, something that supply management would do well to consider. Done right, it would provide balance and real information to the general public about the importance of the industry and the very real services it provides to Canadians. Below is a reprint of the Farms.com article about the commercial and what it achieves.
You can watch this wonderful you tube video again here:
“So God Made A Farmer” Super Bowl Commercial Gives A Boost To Agvocacy
Ram Pays Tribute to Farmers with Voice of Paul Harvey and Powerful Images
It’s the Super Bowl commercial that everyone in the agriculture community is talking about - Ram Trucks version of the famous 1978 speech with the voice of Paul Harvey known as “So God Made a Farmer.”
Not only was the commercial a great advertisement for Ram Trucks, but it also gave a boost to “agvocacy”. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term agvocacy, it’s the combination of the two words – agriculture and advocacy to create the word agvocacy. The whole purpose of agvocacy is to communicate about agriculture with the non-ag audience.
One of the biggest challenges to being an impactful agvocate is ensuring that you are engaging with the non-ag audience and not preaching to the choir. Ram’s commercial was able to reach that non-ag audience, which helps set the stage for agvocates to connect with the average consumer. The message was bold, the images were powerful and it was a positive message about those behind agriculture production. Thank you to Ram Trucks for their tribute to the American Farmer!
Not only was the commercial a great advertisement for Ram Trucks, but it also gave a boost to “agvocacy”. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term agvocacy, it’s the combination of the two words – agriculture and advocacy to create the word agvocacy. The whole purpose of agvocacy is to communicate about agriculture with the non-ag audience.
One of the biggest challenges to being an impactful agvocate is ensuring that you are engaging with the non-ag audience and not preaching to the choir. Ram’s commercial was able to reach that non-ag audience, which helps set the stage for agvocates to connect with the average consumer. The message was bold, the images were powerful and it was a positive message about those behind agriculture production. Thank you to Ram Trucks for their tribute to the American Farmer!
Paul Harvey’s “So God Made A Farmer Speech:
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.
"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.
"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.
