God did not make a farmer

In the videos “God made a farmer,” and “God made a factory farmer” the idea of God creating a Dodge Ram truck is being discussed. The two arguments, however, are drastically different from each other through the use of satire. In the first video, the tone is serious and the producers really tried to connect the presence of God to a truck; in the second video, they are simply mocking the idea in the first and taking it to extremes.

In the commercial “God made a farmer,” the argument being made is that God created a farmer to do his job on Earth. The farmer is hardworking, dependable and a caretaker of everyone, just as the new Dodge Ram truck apparently is. The strengths of this video are that it is emotional; it goes right for the religious and family aspect of things. However, the weakness of this video is that it’s almost mocking what they company is selling. Instead of bringing attention to what the truck can do and how it will improve buyer’s lives, it just concentrates on talking about farmers and religion, which can offset buyers. Likewise, the commercial is trying to create a correlation between a farmer, truck and God, and in by doing so, leaves the second video a lot of room to critique and mock it.

In the Funny or Die video “God made a factory farmer,” the argument being made is that the commercial “God made a farmer” is essentially stupid and goes on to mock it the entire time. It starts off showing the same images, but uses a mocking tone, already implying the commercial was pointless. While the first argument concentrates on the qualities of farmers and how they’re God’s gift to Earth, in this video, they mock all of the things God “made.” For example, since farmers are now obsolete due to pesticides, factories and chemically engineered seeds, God apparently made high fructose corn syrup, which made obesity in America, and then finally God made the same Dodge Ram. It points out all of the flaws in the commercial and of society today essentially, and uses satire to open people’s eyes to what is going on today. Some of the strengths in the video are the use of humor and satire, and I don’t really see many weaknesses, it got its argument made and points across more effectively than the other video did.