Since L. Ron Hubbard lived in California, companies will have to cut a deal with Scientology if they want to use his image to sell trucks before 2056.
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Thank you for posting this, Rob.
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I agree, that is too bad. Because they CLEARLY would have made a better call on this.
Fun fact: The 2014 historical drama Selma, based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches, doesn’t include any excerpts of MLK’s speeches because it was too difficult to get clearance from his estate. I guess the movie producers should have thrown in some product placement to sweeten the deal.
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It made it easier for capitalism to recuperate him
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This fucking shit. I sat there with my jaw agape when I saw it. It feels intentionally tone-deaf. Using MLK to sell something under any circumstances would be bad enough regardless of the political landscape, but right now? Really? I have worked with some fairly major ad agencies, and I’ve watched them happily march out campaigns that I, a consultant from a completely different field, knew were going to be terrible, but none of them have ever been this callous and stupid.
The president is openly racist, we’ve got literal Nazis running for office and marching through the streets and these motherfuckers are trying to use the god-damned civil rights movement to sell shitty trucks.
Fuck you, Ram, fuck your parent company, and fuck all of its offspring. I wasn’t going to buy any of your junk cars because I’ve dealt with them enough to know they’re junk, but now I’m not going to buy any of your junk cars because you’re the kind of stupid cynical shitbirds that will try to capitalize on the legacy of a person who was murdered for advocating civil rights to sell junk cars.
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aaaaaand it’s gone.
ETA: aaaaaand it’s back, nevermind.
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So far, this is the best headline on this whole sorry BS:
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I’m confused how this became millennials’ faults though.
EDIT
As in both avocado toast and PSL (referenced later) are associated specifically young whites.
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Because everything is millennial’s fault now? 
But seriously, I think that the further away you move from a historical moment, the more abstract it becomes and the more often that you get a white washed version of history, especially if that white washed version is in the service of reaffirming a particular historical narrative. That’s not millennial’s fault of course. Young whites are not given a particularly rigerous version of historical truth in HS, because we have to be “balanced” now… and that means leaving out the radicalism of Dr. King and of the violent resistance to the movement when it comes up in a HS history class. Since most young white people aren’t told this history by their parents and they don’t hear it in schools, we get this BS version of king sold to us by corporations.
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I liked the article, and I agree that it’s a sterilization to drip down feel-good messages to younger people. I know I was taught a parable of MLK that was probably entirely false as my first introduction to his history, but it at least used white boys kicking the shit out of him in the story when his autobiography says:
Two incidents happened in my late childhood and early adolescence that had a tremendous effect on my development. The first was the death of my grandmother. She was very dear to each of us, but especially to me. I sometimes think I was her favorite grandchild. I was particularly hurt by her death mainly because of the extreme love I had for her. She assisted greatly in raising all of us. It was after this incident that for the first time I talked at any length on the doctrine of immortality. My parents attempted to explain it to me, and I was assured that somehow my grandmother still lived. I guess this is why today I am such a strong believer in personal immortality.
The second incident happened when I was about six years of age. From the age of three I had a white playmate who was about my age. We always felt free to play our childhood games together. He did not live in our community, but he was usually around every day; his father owned a store across the street from our home. At the age of six we both entered school—separate schools, of course. I remember how our friendship began to break as soon as we entered school; this was not my desire but his. The climax came when he told me one day that his father had demanded that he would play with me no more. I never will forget what a great shock this was to me. I immediately asked my parents about the motive behind such a statement.
We were at the dinner table when the situation was discussed, and here for the first time I was made aware of the existence of a race problem. I had never been conscious of it before. As my parents discussed some of the tragedies that had resulted from this problem and some of the insults they themselves had confronted on account of it, I was greatly shocked, and from that moment on I was determined to hate every white person. As I grew older and older this feeling continued to grow.
I heard he was beaten by two white boys, but never raised his hand to retaliate and instead befriended them. That’s basically the opposite message from the real event where it Dr. King, and a common story told about how black people should act in response to racism.
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It isn’t. It’s the idea that Madison Avenue and corporate America* are locked into an increasingly outmoded and borderline delusional belief that their future is in marketing over-priced premium mediocre and beigist merch to white Millenials. They feel that MLK can be molded into a warm and fuzzy salesman for these things.
[* also the DNC establishment]
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The Estate demands a tithe and other obligations, but enforcement is outside US government jurisdiction.
@emo_pinata Because millennials (aka “anyone currently between the ages of 14 and 42 depending on who you ask”) are too young to have seen the reality first hand, and most of us know only sanitized third-hand accounts, and therefore make dumb choices and assumptions?
I sat in a room of all political ideologies, and we all stared with out mouths hanging open at this ad.
I turned to my dad and said “I have a dream! And that dream is to sell Dodge trucks!”
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TFW MLK Jr might’ve turned into a mutualist or at least a Market Socialist (not necessarily Titoist).
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(Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
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I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But by the grace of Dodge I will get over that mountain, for I have the greatest 4-wheel traction available for any full-size pickup in its class! Hallelujah!
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Let’s have some wisdom from the good doctor as an antidote:
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Everybody should have a look at this thread for some of the real MLK:
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Thanks for posting that.
This quote is really topical, especially in light of the discussions happening here:
…[The Negro] remembers that with each modest advance, the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”
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I like this one:
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