Ford has released a commercial that parodies the pro-American dream Cadillac commercial with a more progressive eco-message.
In Cadillac's ad, a man (actor Neil McDonough) stands over his pool pondering all of his "stuff" as he begins to stroll through his American Dream house and out to his American Dream Cadillac, all the while bragging that Americans work harder than other countries, go to the moon, and create their own luck. At the end, the man says, "As for all the stuff, that's the upside of only taking two weeks off in August. N'est-ce pas?"
Ford's ad parallels Cadillac's nearly line by line and shot by shot. Instead of a successful businessman, Ford's ad features female environmentalist Pashon Murray, owner of Detroit Dirt -- where she collects garbage, composts it and sells it for urban gardens. Similarly, Murray stands near a pile of dirt pondering as she strolls through a greenhouse, a restaurant where she collects scraps, through her apartment and out to her C-MAX hybrid Ford car. She asks:
Why do I work so hard? For what? For this? For dirt?
Other countries, they work, they stroll to the market and buy locally grown food. Locally.
Why aren't we like that? Well, more and more of us are like that.
Because we're crazy entrepreneurs trying to make the world better.
Some people might think we're nuts. Whatever.
Me? I collect food scraps from restaurants, manure from zoos. Manure. Do you know why?
To keep this stuff out of landfills and use it to make good rich dirt. That's why.
Yeah, look, it's pretty simple; You work hard, you believe that anything is possible, and you try to make the world better. You try.
As for helping a city grow good green, healthy vegetables, that's the upside of giving a damn. N'est-ce pas?
Murray, who's business has partnered with both Ford and GM, told Detroit Free Press, "I don’t think General Motors will be bothered by this at all, because they know who I am and what their heart is. They know we’re all on the same mission.”
A Ford spokeswoman told the Free Press, “I don’t think we’re mocking a competitor. We’re trying to showcase positive work being done in our community."
However, many liberal news outlets who were incensed by Cadillac's pro-American values, are delighted by Ford's mockery. Huffington Post called Cadillac's American dream ad "a nightmare" but has a more positive reaction to Ford's:
Ford's Answer To Cadillac's Classist And Greedy Commercial Is Perfect
Jalopnik thought Ford's ad perfect as well:
See, you can do this kind of ad without coming off like a jingoistic sociopath. N'est-ce pas?
The Atlantic raved:
Ford to Cadillac: There's Another America Out There
Business Insider claimed Ford "destroyed" Cadillac's ad saying:
Ford is giving Americans a choice: Either you can be a self-absorbed Cadillac owner who spends his entire life working so he can buy expensive things, or a civic-minded Ford owner who pours her heart and soul into a project aimed at making the world a better place.
