In the latest salvo in the ongoing, completely sincere and not at all performative or cynical American Culture War, Ford (F) has now gone woke.
(Rubs fingers against temples, sighs wearily.)
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Just in time for Pride Month, Ford has released a new ad titled “Redefining Tough,” in which a very muddy truck splashes through some water, and them emerges all rainbow colored, all as a Lady Gaga-esque pop song blares in the background.
Watch it here:
Ford released a gay pride themed advertisement because, as a business, it is constantly looking for a new customer base, or it's trying to increase its cultural visibility. Thanks to extensive market research, Ford has discovered that the LGBTQIA+ community is part of the vast swath of the population that (checks notes) … drives cars and trucks.
I am sure there are some very nice people who made the ad and who work at Ford who either are part of the community or feel allyship with it. But it may go a bit too far to think that a multinational company on the level of Ford will go much farther into the fight for equality than running a short internet ad.
The advertisement comes on the heels of the completely sincere backlash to Bud Light giving the transgender Tik-Tok star Dylan Mulvaney a personalized can of beer as part of a promotional effort, and the comedian Ilana Glazer starring in an advertisement in which Miller Light tried to atone for decades of sexist advertisements.
In both cases, the Twitter and conservative media backlash amounted to a lot of noise, complaints, sad videos of grown men shooting cans of beer and a lot of free advertisements for the Anheuser-Busch (BUDFF) and the Molson Coors Beverage Company (TAP) company. And for all the bluster, neither company’s stock prices were impacted in any meaningful way for any significant amount of time.
So now that Ford has realized the quickest way to get some attention and, sure, ally points, then expect more ads like this as Pride Month approaches.
But will angry Twitter people purchase Ford trucks only to riddle them with bullets? That would certainly send a message to Ford and its stock value.
