MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This interpretative critique of the visually arresting two-minute commercial during Super Bowl 49 depicting the Jeep Renegade in picturesque scenes throughout the globe interrogates Fiat-Chrysler’s ironic feel-good message of sustainability against Leo Marx’s seminal work in tracing the pastoral tropes of early American literature. Beautifully shot and gracefully edited to the lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s overtly themed American folk song, the commercial’s conceptual leap invites us to visually re-interpret the line to mean “This world is your World,” thus gesturing toward a global embracement of the corporate social consciousness goal to “play responsibly because the world is a gift.” Arguably a public service announcement in disguise, despite the intellectual dissonance of the juxtaposition of a military-born internal-combustion off-road vehicle tracking figuratively through some of the more pristine portions of nature, the commercial works its magic in tricking the audience into approving of Jeep. The case is made that media research suggests that the strong emotional pull of a commercial’s sounds and sights tend to overpower one’s rational thinking, such that in this case, one is unlikely to see, or to challenge the transgression of the machine in the garden.