Springsteen features in commercial set in the exact center of the U.S.
February 7, 2021 9:32 AM   Subscribe

"There's a chapel in Kansas, standing on the exact center of the lower 48..." A brooding, spare commercial features Springsteen and U.S. Center Chapel, the center of the United States. "Jeep® kicks off Game Day by reminding us we are stronger than the obstacles in our way, and invites us to remember all the ways we are connected as Americans. A timeless CJ-5 takes us on a journey to the U.S. Center Chapel in Kansas in search of common ground. We have spanned deserts and climbed the highest peaks. We can cross this divide."
posted by intrepid_simpleton (115 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well, if you could put out a house fire by sending the arsonist a hallmark card, this would do it.
posted by mhoye at 9:57 AM on February 7, 2021 [83 favorites]


Just a reminder if you're watching the game there is a game thread on FanFare.
posted by jessamyn at 9:59 AM on February 7, 2021


mhoye, I know, I know....
posted by intrepid_simpleton at 10:07 AM on February 7, 2021


jessamyn: I did think of that, after I posted it. I won't be watching the game.
posted by intrepid_simpleton at 10:11 AM on February 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


mhoye: "Well, if you could put out a house fire by sending the arsonist a hallmark card, this would do it."

No matter what you do to solve the problems, propaganda is going be part of it. Might as well be Bruce as the voice of the middle.

[needs an "America Blue" tag]
posted by chavenet at 10:11 AM on February 7, 2021 [6 favorites]


Somebody hasn't read American Gods
posted by emjaybee at 10:13 AM on February 7, 2021 [20 favorites]


Is it Stull??! ‘Cause everything I ever learned about the center of the US came from Urge Overkill...
posted by saintjoe at 10:17 AM on February 7, 2021 [6 favorites]


Why would someone worth half a billion dollars prostitute himself on behalf of an auto corporation?

If Springsteen wanted to send his own message, he is certainly wealthy enough to buy his own Super Bowl ad without taking money from Jeep and twisting it around a Jeep promotion.
posted by JackFlash at 10:18 AM on February 7, 2021 [15 favorites]


Brought to us by that great American company Jeep [checks notes] Stellantis N.V. of Amsterdam.
posted by octothorpe at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2021 [21 favorites]


Right at the 1 minute mark, did they reverse that shot in editing? It looks unnatural, especially the blink. Here is is "backwards".
posted by steveminutillo at 10:21 AM on February 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


For some reason I can't get the player version to play. I can follow the link to youtube and it works, though. But yeah, American Gods is definitely missing from this narrative.
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:22 AM on February 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


You didn’t deserve that, and I’m sorry. But this desperate belief that there must be some common ground to be found between the people who come to a church to worship, celebrate, grieve or simply seek shelter, and the people burning a cross on the lawn and eyeing the building next is the last trench of a brand of wishfully naive political nostalgia that’s doing a lot more harm than good in the world.
posted by mhoye at 10:23 AM on February 7, 2021 [28 favorites]


did they reverse that shot in editing? It looks unnatural, especially the blink

It DOES look weird! You remind me of Samer and the fart meme (in a good way).
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:23 AM on February 7, 2021


In defense of this sort of thing...

Why would someone worth half a billion...?

Well, if he made his own commercial it would be considered self-promoting. This way at least there's a little less ego? YMMV.

But this desperate belief that there must be common ground ... doing a lot more harm than good...

I think it is aimed at those who are sincerely wishing the common good. Someone who burns crosses, insisting there are those who deserve less because of their (harmless) identity---that someone is not in the intended audience. The intended audience truly wants the best for others but varies in their perspectives on how that should be achieved. The intended audience is open to seeing other perspectives and making informed decisions. Admittedly that audience might be small; and there is some point when a message aimed at that audience is preaching to the choir!
posted by TreeRooster at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


I'm surprised how angry that ad made me. I work in advertising; I basically watch these ads for a living. And I try to be generous because I know how much time and work and care goes into these, when the stakes are this high. So I'm pretty sure this would have been written over the summer, filmed in October or maybe November - but before the result of the election was known (and well before the riots). And Jeep is known for "both sides need to come together" ads, so this isn't coming out of nowhere.

I have nothing but respect for Springsteen, and I like Jeeps. The ad is beautiful. But celebrating the middle, where "the middle" is being an old white and Christian guy? I don't even know where to start. The middle doesn't fight fear. The middle pretends that there's really nothing to be afraid of, at least not for us, and changes the subject.

To me, that was an ad for Jesus, and I want no part of it.
posted by Mchelly at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2021 [89 favorites]


i just bothered by the idea of an "exact middle" for something as assymmetric as the lower 48... can you show me the formula you used?
posted by danjo at 10:44 AM on February 7, 2021 [9 favorites]


Why would someone worth half a billion dollars prostitute himself on behalf of an auto corporation?

Not yet sure how I feel about it, but having read/heard a lot of Springsteen's laments about the state of American politics I could instantly feel that the message seemed to be one in alignment with his wishes that somehow some people might find at least some common ground.

And then I read the story ....

How Bruce Springsteen Agreed To Do a Super Bowl Commercial for Jeep
posted by thecincinnatikid at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


Good points Mchelly. Every bit of imagery there insures that only a certain subset of viewers will have a positive reaction to it; the rest will be reminded of pain. I'm privileged enough to have a positive reaction---I haven't been personally hurt (as much) by older white guys preaching their version of Jesus. That allowed Bruce to override the negatives for me, but I can see how it would feel to many others less lucky.
posted by TreeRooster at 10:49 AM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


And then I read the story ....

How Bruce Springsteen Agreed To Do a Super Bowl Commercial for Jeep


I'm wrong then - it was filmed this month. Amazed they were able to pull it together this quickly, considering the logistics. There goes my feeling charitable because they couldn't have known what the people who consider themselves the middle were up to this week.
posted by Mchelly at 10:51 AM on February 7, 2021 [10 favorites]


. can you show me the formula you used

In the aforementioned American Gods, they took an exact cutout in the shape of the continental US and balanced it on a pinhead.
posted by mannequito at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


Just spitballing here, I don't have any research or publications to back this up. But when I think about intended audiences, as TreeRooster points out, I don't think of Bernie Bros buying the latest Jeep product, or buying into Stetson hats and whatever those gloves are called (lambswool?). But like the way a lot of corporations are taking away their funding of political things, maybe especially the GOP, I wonder if Jeep is trying to mimic this trend. Is the argument of the ad that if that chapel and the people who might visit it might be interested in reunification, and those people like Jeeps, then maybe the left might like a Jeep, too? Is this like rebranding the American flag from what "patriots" used as a sigul to what the left and moderate rights have been pining for for 4 years, in that now it's not a dogwhistle for white supremacy and lynch mobs but an America we can believe in?
And beyond that, what about the question of can we now be proud to be Americans? I've got to say I haven't been for 4 years. It's not that we (spouse and I) deliberately don't buy American cars, or cars that typify "American" things like individuality and rebel and things like Jeeps, Mustangs, Challengers, Rams, Chargers, etc., but the socio-political identity that goes along with those In general) doesn't align with who we are. Also, we don't need cars like that. But if a Jeep now signifies unity, and the Boss is going along with it, maybe we should change our minds?
posted by Snowishberlin at 11:02 AM on February 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


Poor Alaskans and Hawaiians. I guess they just aren't part of the real Americans at the center.
posted by JackFlash at 11:05 AM on February 7, 2021 [11 favorites]


Coulda went 500-ish miles NW to Belle Fourche, SD and got the "center" of all 50 states, instead of being lower-48ist.

(on edit - been there, no t-shirt stand)
posted by achrise at 11:10 AM on February 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


If you include them, you wind up in South Dakota.
posted by jessamyn at 11:12 AM on February 7, 2021 [9 favorites]


Yeah but what about the territories and possessions?
posted by notyou at 11:13 AM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


What town is the Kansas chapel in?
posted by artdrectr at 11:22 AM on February 7, 2021


The original chapel was destroyed by a speeding vehicle in 2008 and replaced.
posted by joeyh at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


Also, as to the entreaties to the church and/or the metaphorical middle ground, it has been previously said ....
the door's open but the ride ain't freee
posted by thecincinnatikid at 11:24 AM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


The fact that there will never be complete unity among Americans does not mean all appeals for unity are naive or pointless. Just as Trump massively and intentionally increased division, many people are now interested in doing the opposite. I've thought for a while now that the ideal antidote to inflammatory media like Fox News is probably not some kind of left-wing mirror image of it, but rather a campaign aimed at more or less the same audience, but pushing deradicalization and reconciliation.

Yes, of course, certain stark differences in belief, grim historical facts, and troubling current realities can't and shouldn't be papered over. That doesn't mean that any attempt to change the mood of the country toward unity is wrong, or futile. People aren't purely rational creatures. Appeals to emotion matter at least as much as presentations of facts. If you can get people in a mood to contemplate what they have in common with their fellow Americans, you're probably then going to be more likely to succeed at actually addressing difficult truths.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:30 AM on February 7, 2021 [14 favorites]


Here's the google street view of the chapel; it's the little white building. It's in the middle of a traffic island about 5 miles from Lebanon, the closest town.
posted by achrise at 11:36 AM on February 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


The "center" has been skewed enough by the tyranny of geography. Let's all meet at the demographic center of the country in Wright County, Missouri.

But, yeah, the sentiment of this ad seems out of place and weird coming from The Boss.
posted by St. Oops at 11:48 AM on February 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


The fact that there will never be complete unity among Americans does not mean all appeals for unity are naive or pointless.

Don't conflate an appeal for political centrism with an appeal for unity.
posted by mhoye at 11:51 AM on February 7, 2021 [21 favorites]


I guarantee I would not feel welcome in Lebanon, KS
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2021 [14 favorites]


To me this is really good marketing in its ambiguity.

The center we reunite around is also the farthest point from the coasts. A spoonful of creamy liberal Springteen with crunchy flag bits. A cross nailed to the map of the US wrapped in a heart warming authentic locale.

A whiter than snow jeep, soothing to our frazzled senses.... is it electric? is it gas? It's whatever you want it to be!
posted by haemanu at 11:58 AM on February 7, 2021 [13 favorites]


Yeah but what about the territories and possessions?

With the exception of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (and, okay, Navassa Island), the rest (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, etc.) are all in the South Pacific. The total area of the Caribbean ones is 3,650 square miles (almost all of that Puerto Rico), while the total area of the Pacific ones is 506 or so (mostly American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands). (That's from manually adding them up--Wikipedia says the total is 8,607 square miles, but I think that's counting surrounding waters.)

Meanwhile, the total area of the United States is 3.8 million square miles. The math is way above my skill set, but we can see that the territories and possessions are all south of the states-only geographic center, mostly east of it (in terms of square miles, not number of territories/possession), and that they represent less than 1% of the total area, so I'm going to go with 'slightly southeast of that pasture outside Belle Fourche, South Dakota.'
posted by box at 11:59 AM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


haemanu: "A whiter than snow jeep, soothing to our frazzled senses.... is it electric? is it gas? It's whatever you want it to be!"

It's Bruce's "own 1980 Jeep CJ-5" according to the Variety article linked above.
posted by chavenet at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


Fuck this ad. It's barely a half-step away from "let's all move on" that the Republicans have been saying since January 7. I don't want to just move on, I want consequences.
posted by axiom at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2021 [42 favorites]


I'm excited to learn this place is only 50 miles from an outsider art masterpiece, The Garden of Eden.

(q: What's 50 miles to a Midwesterner? a: Going out for coffee)
posted by intrepid_simpleton at 12:13 PM on February 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


Don't conflate an appeal for political centrism with an appeal for unity.

The ad itself does exactly that.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:18 PM on February 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


Some people in the comments are saying the speech he gives is taken from the ending of Elizabethtown. I've not seen the movie, can anyone confirm?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2021


Once, he exhorted us to come on up for the rising; now, he's begging us to meet in the middle. Sad decline of expectations.
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:35 PM on February 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


The original chapel was destroyed by a speeding vehicle in 2008 and replaced.

They did a good job of replacing it as here is the exterior and interior from my visit in 2006.

There was a visitor log inside that you could sign. I never sign those things but when I went to the grocery store in Lebanon to get souvenirs the elderly cashier asked me if I had signed the book. When I said I hadn't she tore off a bit of a grocery bag and made me sign it, saying she would bring it to the chapel after she got off work.

There are actually two centers of the 50 states. There's the elaborate ceremonial marker conveniently located at the visitor center in Belle Fourche, and there's the actual center in a canola field about twenty miles north of town.
posted by plastic_animals at 12:38 PM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


Did we just get a glimpse of the diner where New York Times reporters go to interview Trumpy old blowhards to ensure that we all get to listen to the views of so-called "real Americans"?
posted by gimonca at 12:45 PM on February 7, 2021 [17 favorites]


Is it Stull??! ‘Cause everything I ever learned about the center of the US came from Urge Overkill The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
posted by banshee at 1:08 PM on February 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


I don't like signing those visitor register things either, but one older lady told me that numbers helped them get grants. Perhaps that's why she was so adamant.
posted by intrepid_simpleton at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


An old white dude at a white Christian chapel outside a 99.01% White town.

I much prefer John Cena's more accurate idea of the average American, from his Love Has No Labels promo "We Are America."
Patriotism. There’s a word thrown around a lot.

It inspires passionate debate and is worn like a badge of honor. And with good reason. Because it means love and devotion for one’s country.

Love. For a word designed to unite, it can also be pretty divisive.

You see, there’s more to patriotism than flag-sequined onesies, and rodeos, and quadruple cheeseburgers. Patriotism is love for a country, not just pride in it.

But what really makes up this country of ours? What is it we love? It’s more than a huge rock full of animals like cougars and eagles, right?

It’s the people.

Do me a favor and close your eyes for a second. I want to try something out.

Picture the average U.S. citizen. Think about it. How old are they? What’s their hair like?
How much can they bench? Got one? OK.

So, the chances are the person you’re picturing right now looks a little different than the real average American.

There are 319 million U.S. citizens. 51% are female. So, first off, the average American is a woman. Cool, huh? Is that what you pictured?

54 million are Latino. 40 million senior citizens. 27 million are disabled. 18 million are Asian (that’s more people in the US than play football and baseball combined)

9 million are lesbian, gay, bi, or transgender. More than the entire amount of people that live in the state of Virginia. Around 10 million are redheaded.

5.1 million play ultimate frisbee. And 3 and a half million are Muslim. Triple the number of people currently serving in the United States military.

Almost half the country belongs to minority groups. People who are lesbian. African American. And bi. And transgender. And Native American. And proud of it.

We know that labels don’t devalue us, they help define us: keeping us dialed in to our cultures, and our beliefs, and who we are as Americans. After all, what’s more American than the freedom to celebrate the things that make us us?

I mean, it’s stitched into the stars and stripes of this country, from the Constitution, to Gettysburg, to our motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” from many, one. It’s even in our country’s name – the UNITED States.

This year patriotism shouldn’t just be about pride of country. It should be about love.

Love beyond age, disability, sexuality, race, religion, and any other labels. Because the second any of us judge people based on those labels, we’re not really being patriotic, are we?

So let’s try this one more time. Close your eyes, picture that average Joe, or Joan, or Juan, or Jean-Luc. The real people who make America America.

And this year, whenever you feel the urge to don star spangled shorts, or set off fireworks the size of my biceps to show love for our country, remember that to love America is to love all Americans.

Because love has no labels.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:46 PM on February 7, 2021 [64 favorites]


Every once in a while, for the last few years, a scene from Stephen King's "The Stand" has popped into my head, the one where a lone man is protesting against an imminent act of brutality. He says something like "This ain't right, and you know it. We were Americans once." But these people who have chosen evil--they are Americans. I think about that every time Stonekettle hops on Twitter to say "You want a better country? Be better citizens." Some Americans have actively chosen to secede. To a different reality. To another code of behavior. They've chosen this, staked their identities on it. And the siege of the Capitol showed me that they''re not coming back to the middle, no matter how much time and how many words are spent trying to understand they whys of it. They're not wearing masks and are OK with others dying, with themselves dying. They've invested in this death cult of white Christian nationalism, and they're not interested in moving toward a middle or in being better citizens: the brutality is what they're in it for. This is America. I adore Bruce; I admire his optimism; but I'm with Mchelly: centering the aspirational ideal around a white working-class hero praying in a tiny white Christian space at the very moment when that's what secessionists who think of themselves as True Americans are violently working for is...not great.
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:46 PM on February 7, 2021 [44 favorites]


Whenever I hear one of these appeals to "meet in the middle," "we're all Americans," etc. lately, I think back to how it must be to have watched the famous fascist movements in history come to power. I imagine being in the shoes of those in 1920's Germany and being told to "meet in the middle" with people who staged the Beer Hall Putsch (or in our case, the Jan. 6 insurrection). I know that some people truly have good intentions when they say things like this, but it feels gross when you put it on the context of all that we've seen in the past 4 years.

We need to actively encourage a lively left movement and refuse to simply "move on" and pretend that now that Joe Biden is in office everything's fine. I already see my family and friends disengaging in politics after 4 years of consistently following the news, going to some protests, etc. We need to be doing the opposite - now is the time to hold the centrist dem's accountable if we're going to prevent an even worse republican administration in 2024.
posted by unid41 at 2:04 PM on February 7, 2021 [19 favorites]


So Bruce and Jeep are the socio-cultural fault-axes along which America in the 2020s finds itself precariously balanced?
posted by hwestiii at 2:09 PM on February 7, 2021


same on this:

Is it Stull??! ‘Cause everything I ever learned about the center of the US came from Urge Overkill The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
posted by banshee at 3:08 PM on February 7 [2 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

posted by hwestiii at 2:12 PM on February 7, 2021


Has there been a "the information" post around here lately? I've been away...
posted by hwestiii at 2:14 PM on February 7, 2021


"Some Americans have actively chosen to secede. To a different reality. To another code of behavior. They've chosen this, staked their identities on it. And the siege of the Capitol showed me that they''re not coming back to the middle, no matter how much time and how many words are spent trying to understand they whys of it. "

I think every one of those people at the Capitol believed and still believe they are the middle. That they're holding the middle back where it belongs, to wrench it away from the "radical left."

I'd love to see a piece exploring how the people who love this ad voted. This feels to me like a what mhoye said at the top, a gift to the people who want to feel good about their poor decisions, or a polite way to sweep them under the rug and pretend we're all just folks again.

And I hate that I hate this ad so much. It really is lovely and beautifully made. The 'everyone's welcome under the cross' messaging would always be a slap in the face for me, but it's still a powerful set of words. Maybe I'm the asshole they're fighting against, after all.
posted by Mchelly at 2:25 PM on February 7, 2021 [10 favorites]


So Bruce and Jeep are the socio-cultural fault-axes along which America in the 2020s finds itself precariously balanced?

Yes, I think so? Identity politics, masks, socio-cultural literacy (Gee, 1999; etc) and consumer culture and multi-literacies (Cook-Gompertz, 1994) do say that we know the society we live in, and can relate to and place ourselves where we choose to. I don't know if that is a balance upon which we find ourselves, but it certainly says something about what we know about our world.
posted by Snowishberlin at 2:26 PM on February 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


So Bruce and Jeep are the socio-cultural fault-axes along which America in the 2020s finds itself precariously balanced?

Yes, I think so? Identity politics, masks, socio-cultural literacy (Gee, 1999; etc) and consumer culture and multi-literacies (Cook-Gompertz, 1994) do say that we know the society we live in, and can relate to and place ourselves where we choose to. I don't know if that is a balance upon which we find ourselves, but it certainly says something about what we know about our world.
posted by Snowishberlin at 4:26 PM on February 7


This makes me wonder about the probably apocryphal "no two countries with McDonalds have ever *** done some horrible thing to each other ***" So many of the arguments in support of conservative economics have proven catastrophically strong, and still they represent the real religion of America today. How long can America maintain a concensus while implicit, if not explicit, white supremacy drains dollars from multicolor urban communities into ever more whitening rural ones?
posted by hwestiii at 3:17 PM on February 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


I think every one of those people at the Capitol believed and still believe they are the middle. That they're holding the middle back where it belongs, to wrench it away from the "radical left."


I wonder if any of them would dare acknowledge how much the reverse is true and how drastically right the country has lurched, just within the current century, not to mention last twenty years of the previous one. Basically all my adult life. The middle of today's Republican Party in indistinguishable from its early Cold War radical fringe even before they got to run their own boy in '64. The ascendance of Reagan looks positively Periclean compared to where we are today.
posted by hwestiii at 3:22 PM on February 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


Mod note: Friendly mod update: DON'T GODWIN THIS THREAD
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:09 PM on February 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


Springsteen's politics are as lefty as those of his hero, Woody Guthrie. I suspect that, from Bruce's perspective, the ad was intended to define the U.S. mainstream as a liberal, inclusive, community where are all welcomed and cared for. And to invite people on the right to repudiate hate and get with the program.

With that said, Bruce isn't always that savvy, politically. He was shocked when Reagan and the Republicans latched onto the booming chorus to coopt "Born in the USA" as a simpleminded, nationalistic anthem. Whereas the lyrics actually reflect a bitter indictment of the failures of U.S. policy, both foreign and domestic.
posted by lumpy at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


danjo, apparently they balanced a big cut out of the lower 48. Not kidding. So colloquially it's approximately the "center of mass" of the lower 48.
posted by ecreeves at 4:28 PM on February 7, 2021


I thought about my Jeep Renegade, built in a Fiat plant in Italy and laughed as I read this:

“But Francois was convinced the songwriter embodied many of the attributes that make Jeep appealing to car buyers. “It is obvious to anyone. He is exactly like Jeep — iconic, American, rugged and authentic,” says Francois.”
posted by cybrcamper at 4:31 PM on February 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


no two countries with McDonalds have ever

... gone to war with each other, was the theory. Like the rest of Thomas Friedman’s oeuvre, it was clever, easy to repeat, and wrong on the day it was written.
posted by mhoye at 4:36 PM on February 7, 2021 [19 favorites]


they balanced a big cut out of the lower 48

You could calculate it: it's the centroid.

The right wing does like Bruce, lyrics or not... I'm sure Trump would have used "Born in the USA" all the time if he could have. Maybe there's a few trapped in the the bubble of lies and hate fueling this whole thing that could come back to reality if invited by a trusted face. Not 74 million though, so there's a lot of work left.
posted by netowl at 5:03 PM on February 7, 2021 [2 favorites]


Why would someone worth half a billion dollars prostitute himself on behalf of an auto corporation?

My question: why, in 2021, are we still pejoratively evoking the specter of sex work in order to deride an artist engaging in a commercial activity that we don't personally endorse? Back in the eighties some feckless letter writer to Rolling Stone called Lou Reed--Lou Reed, of all the people--"a whore for corporate America" for doing an ad for Honda scooters. One. Ad. After several decades of selling nothing more than his music (and maybe a few T-shirts and other assorted merch, which usually doesn't get that measure of approbation, for some reason), and doing a ton of charity work, Bruce finally got around to doing an ad for motor vehicles after singing about them his entire career. For anyone not invested in keeping him on a pedestal as The Last Pure Celebrity or something, it's about as surprising as Henry Rollins wearing a black T-shirt for the Gap. Clutch the pearls, break out the smelling salts, &c.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:30 PM on February 7, 2021 [20 favorites]


With that said, Bruce isn't always that savvy, politically. He was shocked when Reagan and the Republicans latched onto the booming chorus to coopt "Born in the USA" as a simpleminded, nationalistic anthem. Whereas the lyrics actually reflect a bitter indictment of the failures of U.S. policy, both foreign and domestic.

That reinterpretation was weird at the time. I was just a kid and even I could figure out the lyrics.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:31 PM on February 7, 2021 [6 favorites]


Just saw it.

All I can say, having owned a Jeep on occasion, and driven though a couple hundred thousand miles across the heartland: you don't need a fucking CJ5 to find the middle of America.

Fucking wankers.
posted by wotsac at 6:50 PM on February 7, 2021


The message is the ordinary, the middle, sent to people watching The Superbowl. It poses as a respectful call to cool the anger of the day, and frustration, to find calm, and a jeep. Prostituting, come on, everyone who works for money, sells themselves to do that. If he had pulled out his giant wad, and made a statement with it, he would be on a soapbox, not as clean as working, for an American, (maybe,) business. While he was at work, he carried a message. He applied that salve to a big wound, that is the rage of the day. There are all kinds of folksy messages, it is not illegal to be Bruce Springsteen and to advocate a more peaceful, national, demeanor.

I did not watch the Superbowl, it is not my demographic, I liked this commercial, I would have liked it if Danny Glover made it, I would have liked it if they had made it in the middle of that canola field, though I don't use canola. I liked it. But, yeah, I am an old, white idiot, an idealist, a chump, and a sucker for a rugged face. I love this country, I would like to have it back. Any place is a good place to start. Deb Haahland, she is perhaps the center demographic, she could have done this in the canola field, taking a paycheck from Land 'o Lakes. Whatever.
posted by Oyéah at 8:51 PM on February 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


Kirkaracha, thank you for bringing me back to that John Cena video, which soothed, bolstered and inspired me when it came out. Fun production with the backgrounds!

Still mixed feelings about the Bruce ad, having lived this place for half a century as a lefty.
posted by maniabug at 10:20 PM on February 7, 2021 [1 favorite]


Has there always been a chapel and a traffic island there?
I visited many years ago (after swinging by the World's Largest Ball of Twine, just a few miles down the road) and I have no memory of a chapel or a picnic area.

In my memory, it's basically a road side marker next to a gate.
posted by madajb at 10:57 PM on February 7, 2021


> now is the time to hold the centrist dem's accountable if we're going to prevent an even worse republican administration in 2024.

2022 is when the next shift in Federal politics is scheduled to happen. Midterms matter.
posted by fragmede at 11:15 PM on February 7, 2021 [9 favorites]


Radio Nowhere This is not the official video but it juxtaposes nicely with this commercial.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 12:24 AM on February 8, 2021


After finally seeing the ad, yeah, my immediate thoughts were of the John Cena commercial, and how much better it was, while also not really selling anything. It was essentially just a PSA, and it was damn good. Meanwhile, the center of America is a church with a cross. Meet in the middle, as long as you're comfortable sitting in the pews.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:14 AM on February 8, 2021 [8 favorites]


Honestly, the Super Bowl ad that annoyed me more was the NFL's own back-patting spot where they claimed to be "standing up against systemic racism" by donating money someplace - while Colin Kapernick is still out of a job.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:13 AM on February 8, 2021 [10 favorites]


I guarantee I would not feel welcome in Lebanon, KS

In 2021, blind faith in the Boss, or in Superbowl ads, will get you killed.
posted by condour75 at 4:38 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


I hated the ad, and it's hard to describe why. It isn't about the chapel, even though I'm Jewish and Christianity doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

It's the vivid sense of emptiness and isolation. I don't think the ad was beautiful, though I suppose it was well designed, considering that it hit such a strong emotional note.

Meet who in the middle? There's no one to meet. This is not a reflection on the current situation, the ad isn't about the current situation, at least not visually.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:17 AM on February 8, 2021 [12 favorites]


It poses as a respectful call to cool the anger of the day, and frustration, to find calm, and a jeep.

That's the problem, though - a call to cool the anger of the abused demanding justice is by its very nature disrespectful. There has been for too long a cultural predilection towards the idea that we can just bridge any difference if we just come together, and an unwillingness to grasp that demanding victims address their abusers in discourse is a form of abuse.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:20 AM on February 8, 2021 [19 favorites]


If you want to appeal to everyone, the best way to do it is though shilling a brand that most Americans can't even afford.
posted by Beholder at 5:36 AM on February 8, 2021


Is it Stull??! ‘Cause everything I ever learned about the center of the US came from Urge Overkill...

Haha

I grew up down the road from Stull in Lawrence, KS. It's 200+ miles from the Geographic Center. I've been to the latter a couple of times and it's almost creepy how quiet it is there. We didn't see another person when we were there nor anyone on the special state highway built to take you to this "attraction." Interestingly there is a small motel on the site. It hasn't been in use for decades but I read that the person behind the place when it was built was just certain people would want to come and stay.
posted by drstrangelove at 5:43 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


I got to the end of that and thought, "its enough to make one cynical forever."
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:46 AM on February 8, 2021 [2 favorites]


What town is the Kansas chapel in?

It's not in any town. The nearest one is Lebanon.
posted by drstrangelove at 5:46 AM on February 8, 2021


Fun fact--- just north of the Geographic Center is Red Cloud, Willa Cather's old stomping grounds. The town reminds me a bit of Sauk Centre, MN or Hannibal, MO in that they are fiercely proud of their famous sons (or daughter as it were) yet in each case these authors got out when they could and never returned. In Sauk Centre's case Sinclair Lewis was actually persona non grata for a while for having written Main Street.
posted by drstrangelove at 5:54 AM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]


Meet who in the middle?

Exactly. Why waste a chance like that. Here you go, Jeep, give me your money, I’ll make the add for you:

Bruce looks up, stern, forlorn, wistful. Bruce. Something amiss. He feels adrift. Meandering without purpose. Somewhere that doesn’t fit his Bruceness. He leaves, and climbs in his Jeep.

The voiceover begins.

Little vignettes of other Americans, all races, creeds, preferences and genders. All alone, all looking vaguely lost, vaguely unsettled. The vignettes all end up with them climbing into their Jeeps (great chance to show off a whole line of products!), and they start driving. Maybe you have people stopping to pick up others, waiting by the side of the road, waiting for something, someone. They climb into the Jeep, and then you’re at the chapel, and Jeep after Jeep, Wranglers and Cherokees are pulling in, and Americans, together, united, they’ve found each other, and in finding each other, they’ve found what they were looking for, they’ve found America, all of them, all of us, together, differences celebrated, not set aside, embraced.


I mean, shit, it’s not that hard. That, and sure, Bruce, but the song playing is Simon and Garfunkel’s America. That’s just a gimme.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:06 AM on February 8, 2021 [13 favorites]


You know, I don't think that ad had enough Christian settler colonialism manifest destiny imagery in it to really get the point across.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:27 AM on February 8, 2021 [21 favorites]


In the interest of humor to lighten the tone:

My Bestie also disliked the ad, but says it's because she is disappointed that Bruce Springsteen is not included in the purchase of a Jeep itself.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:41 AM on February 8, 2021 [6 favorites]


EmpressCallipygos, that would be great, and I wouldn't even need to keep him, just have him drive up in the Jeep, get out, toss me the keys, start back toward the pink Cadillac that was trailing him to take him home... then turn around, come back to me, rest his hands on my shoulders, say, "Everything's gonna be alright, man," and give me a big hug before leaving.

I'd buy six.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:47 AM on February 8, 2021 [8 favorites]


Ghidorah, thank you. That would be a great ad.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 6:49 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


I’m too worn out and tired to get mad at this ad but that’s just me.
posted by noiseanoise at 7:20 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


Old man shouts "unity" at crowds is going to be a 2021 theme.
posted by srboisvert at 7:53 AM on February 8, 2021 [10 favorites]


Honestly, the Super Bowl ad that annoyed me more was the NFL's own back-patting spot where they claimed to be "standing up against systemic racism" by donating money someplace - while Colin Kapernick is still out of a job.

Kaep's probably been out of the league for too long for a comeback now but you know what the NFL could do? They could come clean about their blacklisting. There was a settled lawsuit between the NFL and Kaep. Release the details (with Kaep's permission since it probably involved a mutual NDA). You want to deal with Racism? First you must repent and to repent you must confess. It would be awkward though because all of the racists who did the blacklisting are still there and went completely unpunished. They also probably violated all kinds of laws particularly since the teams are recipients of all kinds of state and federal funding.
posted by srboisvert at 8:00 AM on February 8, 2021 [11 favorites]


Halloween Jack - my bestie likes your idea almost as much as the notion of having Bruce at her beck and call. (That's saying something.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:28 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


Born In the USA was the first album I owned; I think I got it for my 8th birthday. I've always been favorably inclined toward Springsteen, though far from a fan - that's the only album of his I've owned, and I'm largely (though not completely) unfamiliar with his later work. (I believe folks who say it's good, I just haven't gotten around to it.) But I'm aware of him and of his politics and feel generally positive towards him.

But I wouldn't have known that Bruce Springsteen was involved in that ad if you hadn't told me so. His speaking voice isn't that iconic to me and while I can recognize him in the shots when I know it's him, if I didn't it would just be some weathered-looking older white guy.


Maybe there's a metaphor there, I dunno.
posted by nickmark at 8:32 AM on February 8, 2021 [2 favorites]


The YouTube Comments Are the Only Thing Good About Jeep's Stupid Bruce Ad (Jalopnik), in which my favorite is:
1941 Jeep: Let's kill fascists
2021 Jeep: Let's meet in the middle
posted by box at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2021 [15 favorites]


I consider Bruce’s speaking voice — which he uses a ton in performance — to be absolutely “iconic.”

This isn’t about the actual middle, it’s about people who need to feel they are the middle. And it indeed panders slaveringly to them while appearing to excuse, you know, white supremacy. Tactically, this may be defensible when you need to get tens of millions of people to back off the boogalooo qanon edge and go back to being just ordinary nice American closet racists.

Bruce is a god to me as an artist and that will never change. This is the first thing he has done ever in his career to attach his name to a commercial product. And at least he’s actually a Jeep owner and fan. But I’m willing to give him a pass for the most part. It’s the super bowl, in which a team led by a fascist supporter beat a team with a super racist name. That’s the “middle” in question. America, fuck yeah. The jeep ad is small fish.
posted by spitbull at 9:58 AM on February 8, 2021 [2 favorites]


For reasons beyond my understanding, noted rich person Bruce Springsteen broke his decades-long prohibition on doing any ads (really a lot of missed bandana opportunities there) for a schlocky promo about reconciliation and “meeting in the middle,” as if the country didn’t just elect the center-right politician most famous for the Crime Bill. How this sells Jeeps, I don’t know. How this makes anyone feel anything but pandered to, I also don’t know!
Keep going, Jalopnik! So long as you can still start an article like this, I'll know that Herb Spanfeller hasn't completely consumed you.
posted by CrystalDave at 10:10 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


A nice visual would be the iconic Bernie riding shotgun next to the iconic Boss at :30.
posted by intrepid_simpleton at 10:12 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


Most Americans live around the coasts. You literally cannot get further from the middle than going to the geographic middle of the United States. That church is literally as far from the center of America, in terms of PEOPLE, as you possibly can get while still being within the Lower 48.

I feel nauseating terror at that ad. It is an ad about an "America" which has no place for me or anybody I know.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 10:21 AM on February 8, 2021 [9 favorites]


I much prefer John Cena's more accurate idea of the average American, from his Love Has No Labels promo "We Are America."

I also immediately thought of that video and how much better it discussed the "average" American. (Though apparently all big, muscular men look alike to me, since I thought John Cena was Dwayne Johnson.)

But John Cena was walking in a comfortable, pedestrian-friendly location, so that would make for a bad car ad.
posted by jb at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2021


It's the vivid sense of emptiness and isolation. I don't think the ad was beautiful, though I suppose it was well designed, considering that it hit such a strong emotional note.

Meet who in the middle? There's no one to meet. This is not a reflection on the current situation, the ad isn't about the current situation, at least not visually.


Maybe that's the secret message? Unlike the crowded, lively and diverse streetscape in the John Cena spot, the director/producer was pointing out that there is no one in the mythical centre, just an empty church in a frozen field? Even Springsteen doesn't stay. No one is the middle, it doesn't exist.

But I'm trying too hard to give a bit of meaning to what is just a really blah ad for a car.

(I'm bored rather than being offended, because I'm not American. But I'm also not at all interested in that car - just thinking that a convertible is pretty useless anywhere with snow.)
posted by jb at 10:41 AM on February 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


When Jeep's actually trying to sell vehicles, they make commercials like this one, or this one.
posted by box at 2:28 PM on February 8, 2021


I just want to know who sent out the eagles to find the exact centre, and is there an omphalos that you can see anointed there?
posted by lesbiassparrow at 1:39 AM on February 9, 2021


I feel nauseating terror at that ad. It is an ad about an "America" which has no place for me or anybody I know.

Having been there I can attest it's not for those uncomfortable with desolate, wide open spaces. But being from Kansas it's glorious to me-- it's magnificent desolation.
posted by drstrangelove at 4:22 AM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Historian David M. Perry: Christian Nationalist Propaganda (and Bruce Springsteen)
The image above shows a scene from inside the little chapel at the heart of the ad, and the United States. First, it’s obviously a Christian space because there’s a cross. But the cross here is placed on top of a map of the U.S. decorated in the stars and stripes. It could not be a more obvious depiction of a Christian nationalist viewpoint. In fact, it’s so obvious, that the authors probably didn’t even notice. It’s not that this is a secret pernicious plot, it’s that Christianity as default is engrained in the American dominant political culture to such a degree that the idea that crosses – and there are lots of them in the ad – don’t even register as a sign of exclusion rather than inclusion. “The chapel is ecumenical,” one person on Twitter told me, baffled at my objections.
posted by Lexica at 10:10 AM on February 9, 2021 [8 favorites]


Thanks, Lexica; that's a helpful piece.
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2021


The Supernatural (TV show) Men of Letters headquarters was also in Lebanon Kansas, it was the home base from where the characters fought both the devil and god. That's kind of a fitting "middle" I guess.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:56 AM on February 9, 2021


Blood of the Cross and Soil = American middle, where we should all meet and center our national identity. I don't think it's what Springsteen meant to convey, especially given his music and his own statements about politics, but that's the message.
posted by MonkeyToes at 12:33 PM on February 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Pitchfork weighs in with Sam Sodomsky's article "Breaking Down Bruce Springsteen’s Uncharacteristic Super Bowl Commercial."

Sam considers the politics of the commercial in the context of Bruce's larger body of work. I thought this paragraph was particularly insightful:
Two days before the Jeep commercial aired, Springsteen officially released the latest recording from his ongoing live archive series. It captures an extraordinary 1997 show from his very first solo tour, behind his understated solo album The Ghost of Tom Joad, and it represents the furthest he ever wandered from the mainstream. For two hours, he is heard strumming an acoustic guitar as he sings elaborate story-songs about immigrants crossing the border to America only to find themselves forced into cooking meth, selling their bodies, and dying alone, far from their families. The music is spare and bleak, and the message is overwhelmingly tragic. It is difficult to imagine Springsteen telling any of the characters in these songs, as he does in the Super Bowl commercial, that “the very soil we stand on is common ground.”
posted by lumpy at 12:56 PM on February 9, 2021


Isn't the boss famously from New Jersey? Now he's a cowboy? I don't get it.
posted by chaz at 2:58 PM on February 9, 2021




Hanif Abdurraquib, "A Night in Bruce Springsteen's America":

Here is where I tell you that this was a sold-out show, and as I looked around the swelling arena when I arrived, the only other black people I saw were performing labor, in some capacity. The fact that I noticed this, I’m sure, would potentially seem absurd to many of the other people attending the concert. One of the other black people, an older man with a laugh like my father’s, led me to my seat and told me that he hoped he got to watch a bit of the show in between working.

In Bruce Springsteen’s music, not just in The River, I think about the romanticization of work and how that is reflected in America. Rather, for whom work is romantic, and for whom work is a necessary and sometimes painful burden of survival. One that comes with the shame of time spent away from loved ones, and a country that insists you aren’t working hard enough. In New Jersey, Springsteen’s songs are the same anthemic introspective paintings of a singular America: Men do labor that is often hard, loading crates or working on a dock, and there is often a promised reward at the end of it all. A loving woman always waiting to run away with you, a dance with your name on it, a son who will grow up and take pride in the beautiful, sanctifying joy of work.

I do not know what side of work the employees in the Prudential Center came down on that night, or any night. I know that I understand being black in America, and I have understood being poor in America. What I know comes with both of those things, often together, is work that is always present, the promise of more to come. Even in my decade-plus of loving Bruce Springsteen’s music, I have always known and accepted that the idea of hard, beautiful, romantic work is a dream sold a lot easier by someone who currently knows where their next meal will come from.

posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:55 PM on February 9, 2021 [2 favorites]


hard, beautiful, romantic work is a dream sold a lot easier by someone who currently knows where their next meal will come from.

For this, and other reasons, I’ve always been more partial to Philip Levine as a a chronicler of “work” in America, often brutal, soul draining, and remorseless, something to survive, only to go back the next day, and the next, until survival isn’t on the table anymore.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:03 AM on February 10, 2021


Ummm maybe someone mentioned this but I was shocked to read: Bruce Springsteen faces drunken driving charge in New Jersey. And Jeep went ahead with this anyway, after charges on federal land. Wow.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:25 AM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


Facing charges and calling for unity is very 2021.
posted by srboisvert at 12:15 PM on February 10, 2021 [2 favorites]


I don't think Jeep knew about it: Less than a week after he was featured in a high-profile Jeep Super Bowl ad — the first commercial of his lengthy career — news broke that Bruce Springsteen is facing DWI charges stemming from a November incident, and the car company appears to have pulled the spot from YouTube in response. I bet the marketer who spent 10 years chasing Springsteen for an ad is feeling rueful or worse at the moment.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:51 PM on February 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


He was arrested in November. They knew about it.
posted by tiny frying pan at 12:56 PM on February 10, 2021




Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well, I must've done 110 through Michigan County that night

posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:23 AM on February 12, 2021


“work” in America, often brutal, soul draining, and remorseless, something to survive, only to go back the next day, and the next, until survival isn’t on the table anymore.

It's unclear if your comment is informed by having listened to Springsteen's body but it would appear not - volumes of his work (and a considerable portion of his autobiography) are about this subject and the toll it exacts on those unfortunate enough to be trapped in precisely that life, inclusive of his parents and extended family and the majority of people he grew up around. Not that it's any kind of singularly brilliant insight, just doing what he gleaned from Woody Guthrie and legions of others, but to suggest he's light on his reverence of and service to the plight of the working class (because he made it out) is an unfair and/or uninformed reading of his work.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:29 PM on February 12, 2021


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