Among the less popular ads at Super Bowl LII was a spot with a voiceover by Martin Luther King, Jr., in which the preacher's exhortation to service, grace, and love is used to urge viewers to purchase a Dodge Ram truck.
The incongruity was glaring, but it gets worse: The recording came from a 1968 sermon in which King railed against consumerism and the "drum major instinct," which he defined as the desire to "be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade." He specifically critiqued new car commercials as an example of the destructive ethic of envy, waste, and pride he had in mind:
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