Brow Beat

The Best Super Bowl Ad So Far Was Based on a YouTube Video

The most striking Super Bowl ad in what has been, so far, a pretty disappointing year for Super Bowl ads, is a commercial for Dodge that aired late in the game. Over a series of still photos of farms, farmers, and farm equipment, the commercial played a talk by the conservative radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, who died in 2009. Harvey delivered the speech, called “So God Made a Farmer,” at the Future Farmers of America convention in 1978.

And in 2011, Farms.com made a YouTube video that you can see above. It reached 1 million views, and the only difference between it and the Dodge ad is lower production values and no pitch for Dodge at the end.

Another reason the Super Bowl ads aren’t that interesting anymore: Better stuff gets uploaded to YouTube every day.

Update: Farms.com is working with the Chrysler Group to raise money for the Future Farmers of America. The headline of this post has been changed to reflect that collaboration.