As cool as the "Anti-Manifest" commercial was that Jeep put out during the Super Bowl, the moment I saw it, I just knew there were going to be all kinds of pissed off people. Forget the fact that there was a disclaimer stating that the water crossing was man made, I could already hear a chorus of cries coming from environmentalist as the Jeep went splashing through. I mean, a commercial like this would surely encourage millions of people to do this out in the wild, right? And, looking at a recent article in the Reno-Gazzet Journal, this is what I saw.
For those of you who haven't seen it, this is the commercial in question.
What do you guys think, should Jeep have been more careful to put an ad like this out? Or, are you glad that they did in spite of the likely fallout? What say you?
Anglers bash Jeep's stream-splashing Super Bowl Ad
Benjamin Spillman, bspillman@rgj.com
Chris Wood of Washington, D.C., thought watching Super Bowl LII would be a nice way to relax with his sons.
But when an ad flashed on the screen that depicted a Jeep churning along up a rocky creek, Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited, was no longer relaxed.
“I’m sitting on the couch enjoying Super Bowl Sunday,” said Wood, describing the feeling. “That ad suddenly came on and I almost couldn’t believe what I was watching.”
The ad, which Jeep called "Anti-Manifesto," came with a tiny disclaimer stating it was shot in a manmade water feature.
But Wood said it’s damaging nonetheless because many of the more than 103 million people who watched the game likely didn't see the disclaimer. What they saw was a template for off-highway driving that’s bad news for fish, wildlife and people who enjoy streams and rivers, he said.
“They drove right up the middle of the stream, they effectively reamed the stream and glorified it,” Wood said. “It is about the worst thing you can do to a stream.”
The RGJ requested a comment from a Jeep representative through the media website of Jeep parent company Fiat Chrysler and did not immediately receive a response.
The version of the ad Jeep posted on YouTube has an additional disclaimer attached: “This video was filmed on a man-made lake and man-made waterfall. The video was filmed on private land in the Southwest and the water does not flow to another natural body of water. The waterfall was also man-made for purposes of filming.”
Another Jeep ad titled "The Road," which also ran during the Super Bowl, featured a Jeep driving through what appeared to be a riparian area. It didn't show a disclaimer during the water crossing portion of the ad.
For those of you who haven't seen it, this is the commercial in question.
What do you guys think, should Jeep have been more careful to put an ad like this out? Or, are you glad that they did in spite of the likely fallout? What say you?