God Made a Farmer?
By I was going to respond to that ridiculous “God Made a Farmer” Chrysler ad that ran during the Super Bowl using the voiceover of Paul Harvey’s speech of that title as narration. Showing a lot of white people (and one black person!) farming, the ad was a million ways of problems. Between ignoring the actual people who do farm work in this country (Latinos) and the fact that farming is a hard, low-wage job where people struggle to keep their land in the face of increased centralization and corporatization, the ad was a giant lie. Which is like most advertisements, but this was especially egregious.
I was also going to remind everyone of what a reactionary Paul Harvey by providing some quotes from a book of talks by Harvey that was published in the late 60s or early 70s. It is full of hating on beatniks, how the kids have a lack of respect for Richard Nixon, and various other Abraham Simpson moments. Unfortunately, I can’t find it.
So I’ll let The Gurgling Cod tell you some of the reasons why this advertisement was an abomination, with proper historical context into how Americans have always aestheticized farmers.