Tuesday 6 February 2018

the drum major instinct

Via Kottke, we find that a thoughtful individual who knew that Dr Rev Martin Luther King JR was highly critical of capitalism and the urges that it brings out in people countered the rather tone-deaf word from the sponsors of the national sportsball by overlaying the rest of King’s sermon (delivered sixty years to the day prior at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia) taken out of context over their own commercial.



It often causes us to live above our means. It’s nothing but the drum major instinct. Do you ever see people buy cars that they can’t even begin to buy in terms of their income? You’ve seen people riding around in Cadillacs and Chryslers who don’t earn enough to have a good T-Model Ford. But it feeds a repressed ego.

See both versions of the advertisement and listen to the whole sermon at the link up top.