The late Paul Harvey starred in what is certainly the most memorable Super Bowl commercial of 2013. It was positively striking: the folksy cadence of his voice, familiar, amongst other social sets, to any kid who grew up listening to the station that carried Rush Limbaugh in the 1990s. He was the superior Andy Rooney and the friendlier News of the Weird. And Sunday night, just under three years after his death, I heard him when I never figured I would: during a Super Bowl truck commercial. And Hell, is it ever a commercial.
Paul Harvey’s Super Bowl ad is the best of 2013
The imagery is arresting. It’s something we haven’t seen all night; it’s ... art. Remember Clint Eastwood’s “up with America, get off your ass” appearance in last year’s Super Bowl? Seems like these moments come to us in the second half, buried in the early minutes of the fourth quarter. Enjoy your light beer ads. If you sleep on this, the loss is yours.
Here is the full transcript of the ad:
"And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say,'Maybe next year,' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from an ash tree, shoe a horse with hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Who, during planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, put in another 72 hours." So God made the farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-comb pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the leg of a meadowlark."
It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and brake, and disk, and plow, and plant, and tie the fleece and strain the milk, . Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what Dad does. "So God made a farmer.""
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