I watch a lot of sports and wrestling, so it’s unavoidable that I see this commercial at least once a week, but likely way more than that. Clearly, the perceived demographic of those who watch baseball, college football and professional wrestling are blue-collared white men who feel the need to drive gas-guzzling pickup trucks long distances on desolate country roads in which biker gangs travel on.
From the get-go, this commercial doesn’t exactly begin in any fashion that makes any sense. A scorpion skittering on the ground before the word RESPECT just randomly pops up on the screen. What does a scorpion have to do with Dodge Ram trucks or bikers? What does a scorpion have to do with respect? I respect the fact that scorpions have the capability to incapacitate and even kill human beings with their stings, which leads me to want to avoid them at all costs, but I clearly fail to comprehend the connection between scorpions, trucks and bikers.
But then we get to the “plot” of the commercial, which starts out with the protagonist of the spot, driving down a long, endless desert road. In a pickup truck. That claims to get 24 mpg on the highway with a fuel tank that can hold purportedly 26 gallons. Sure, trucks are large bulky and have the capability for comfort, but I’m surprised at how in a such a supposed fuel-conscious society, the imagery of cruising down highways in our pickup trucks is still being pushed.
I’m not saying that the idea is irresponsible, but there are way more fuel-efficient options to be cruising down the highway in over a Dodge Ram. My car get 33 mpg on a fuel tank that carries 13 gallons; I couldn’t go the same amount of distance before necessitating a fill up, but when I do fill up, it would be literally half the consumption of a Ram. I’m not saying the guy should be driving cross country in a Geo Metro, but there’s almost no need for him to be doing it in a Dodge Ram.
That is, until we get to the conflict of the commercial – a rough and tumble group of bikers comes rolling on up behind the truck, and the driver of the truck takes a concerned glimpse into his rear-view mirror. The look on his face indicates that he is afraid that these bikers are going to attack him with zero logical provocation and eat his lunch, scrap his truck, give him a wedgie and of course, blow dust in his face. It doesn’t matter if it’s unprovoked assault, and these bikers would undoubtedly serve some hard time for doing such, but he’s still scurred of what the bikers could hypothetically do to him.
Of course the bikers don’t actually assault him, and simply begin to pass the truck, but because they have a reputation to upkeep, the alpha biker makes sure to attempt to intimidate the guy they’re passing, by getting right up to the driver’s side window to judgmentally glare inside. Ignore the fact that the biker is also in the same lane as the truck which is already a gargantuan wide vehicle, because an epic staredown is taking place. The alpha biker’s eyes meets the truck driver’s eyes; eventually the truck driver blinks first and gives the ‘sup chin to the biker, hoping for approval. And much to his relief, the alpha biker is clearly impressed enough by the Dodge Ram, and reciprocates the gesture, before accelerating off with the rest of his pack. Or maybe he was impressed with the ambivalence to environmental consideration, but whatever, with the nod, the encounter is over, peacefully.
But wait there’s more! After the alpha biker moves on, the random hot chick, who also happens to be a tough biker makes her appearance known, thus completing the trifecta of truck/manly driving/hot chick. Dodge really tries to drive this home by having a strategic camera pause when she shows up too, just in case you couldn’t tell by the effeminate facial structure and the long hair blowing out from underneath the helmet. The best part of this aspect is that it’s completely forced, completely unnecessary, and the commercial would have been completely the same regardless of the incorporation of the random hot chick or not. But just in case the viewers at home were on the fence about impulsively going out and buying a Dodge Ram so that they could drive on desert roads and cruise with bikers with acceptance, the fact that their trucks should impress hot biker chicks should be what pushes things over the edge.
The commercial ends with the camera panning across the parking lot of a truck stop/rest area where there is a line of parked motorcycles, with the Dodge Ram amidst them all. What I found peculiar is the fact that the bikers clearly left a gap in their parking arrangement for the Dodge Ram to park in, instead of showing complete cohesion and parking all in a continuous row. Either that, or the Dodge Ram decided to be a dick and simply drove over two bikes and parked on top of them because the bikers were bogarting all of the good parking spaces right in front of the rest stop in the first place. Which would have been the cooler theory of what happened.
The funny thing is that it wasn’t until I read the commercial’s description on YouTube written by Dodge themselves, did I understand that the plot of the commercial is that the bikers “invited” the truck driver to the rest stop to join them “to party.” I’ve seen this commercial more times than I’d like to admit, and I can’t say that I’ve once gotten that idea from it. The fact that the truck is with the bikes at the end says more to me that it’s coincidence they all end up together, because they’re driving on deserted country back roads; places to stop and rest and eat are pretty sparse to begin with, so you take what you can get sometimes. But not “to party.” Not once do I think that the bikers invited and trusted the guy to be cool enough based on the truck he drives to hang out with them, especially after him and the unnecessary hot chick already eye-fucked each other already.
Regardless of the excessive analysis of a stupid plot to a stupid commercial, it’s really a bad commercial overall. It succeeds in selling absolutely nothing but a superficial image. I have learned zero about the Dodge Ram based on the commercial, and it was due to my necessity to critique and criticize did I exert the requisite 47 seconds to Google some basic specs on the truck to incorporate into this brog post. The commercial provides no information about the truck, no starting price point, no EPA fuel estimates, and no boasting about what the cab can hold.
So basically, from just about every aspect that could make a commercial stupid and bad, this one hits every single one of them.
