Here is that terrible Ram ad, now with a much more accurate Martin Luther King, Jr. quote

It seems there’s something about using the words of an assassinated civil rights leader to sell trucks in 2018 that just rubs people the wrong way. Luckily, someone with a bit more understanding of what Martin Luther King, Jr. actually believed has taken the time to recreate this commercial with a much more accurate quote.

“We are so often taken by advertisers. You know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion,” said Dr. King, decrying the manipulative and distracting nature of capitalist culture, which either subconsciously or overtly tells people they need to buy things in order to be happy. “Before you know it, you’re just buying that stuff. ‘I’ve got to drive this car because it’s something about this car that makes my car a little better than my neighbor’s car.’”

If you’re wondering just how badly Ram bungled this situation or how little they cared about profiting off MLK’s legacy, you’ll be interested to know the above quote comes from the exact same speech as the one used in the original ad. It’s unclear how Ram thought they were going to get away with this considering this speech can be found with a simple Google search, but apparently they did. Ironically, fifty years ago, MLK himself knew exactly why something this tone deaf could be sold to American audiences without a second thought when he said, “I’m sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit.”