Has the American Farmer Become Obscelete?

Dodge is an American car manufacturing company known predominantly for their sizable trucks, symbolizing all that is masculine and powerful. The company uses these appeals to tie their company into ideals that prospective target customers could identify with, such as farming, God, and other values upon which our country was originally based. The first commercial made by Dodge to promote the Dodge Ram is clearly an emotional appeal to the working class man, who comprises the majority of Dodge’s target audience.  The idea here is that if someone is wholesome and honest, working hard day in and day out, that he or she should inevitably drive a Dodge, because it correlates with all of these things. It is a highly effective commercial for this particular target audience, but their audience today will probably not be composed of many God loving working class farmers. Religion and farming are two foundations of American society that have unfortunately been on the decline, and therefore these appeals may soon become fairly obsolete, which is the concept that the second video attempts to portray.

            The second video uses a contrasting set of rhetorical appeals, based off of satire and mockery. While this video does bring up several valid points about the narrow goals of the first, it is not necessarily credible due to all the bias involved. Also, the fact that the narrator in the second video mocks aspects of the first pertaining to God may be controversial. However, with that being said, the audience who would favor the concepts discussed in the second most likely would not mind the mockery of religious and patriotic appeals. This commercial accurately portrays how American society has deviated from the majority being honest family farmers, to a culture of industrialization.  The video also makes a reference to how society has moved from “Mom and Pop stores” to one massive WalMart, which is an entirely valid assertion. Goods are almost always produced in a factory of some sort, and are no longer made by farmers, who according to the video only make up about one percent of the population now. Due to the fact that the first video aired during the Superbowl this year, it is safe to say that the amount of people affected by the commercial was probably not impressive. Also, considering that Dodge did have to get financial government assistance, they would have been smart to appeal to a broader audience. Extreme advertisement can be affective, but typically lacks credibility and must be taken with a grain of salt.