On Monday, all three network morning shows hailed left-wing, bomb-throwing rocker Bruce Springsteen for a Jeep Super Bowl ad in which he hypocritically preached unity and meeting in the political “middle.” Rather than call out the singer for his history of incendiary partisan rhetoric, hosts all seemed to experience collective amnesia as they pretended he was the perfect messenger to bring people together.
“A rare commercial appearance by the legendary Bruce Springsteen, talks about we don’t need to be on the right or the left, we need to be in the middle,” gushed NBC’s Today show co-host Hoda Kotb at the top of the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour. She then noted how the ad “was a Craig Melvin favorite.” Her fellow co-host Melvin chimed in: “It was wonderful.” He teased an upcoming segment in which they would assess the best and worst Super Bowl spots.
During that later discussion in the 8:00 a.m. ET hour, Melvin marveled:
Yeah, another car company kind of gave you the feels last night, too. That Jeep commercial. And Al was a big fan of this one as well. But this Jeep commercial, Mike, Bruce Springsteen doesn’t do Super Bowl commercials, he did it last night. Here’s just a snippet of it.
A clip ran of Springsteen imploring: “We need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground.”
Turning to marketing expert Mike Jackson, Melvin wondered: “Mike, I mean, here’s Springsteen calling for reunity. It was so effective, what made it work?” Jackson eagerly joined in the swooning over the ad:
You know, the thing that worked for me is it's really consistent with the Jeep brand positioning as this kind of global iconic American brand. And, obviously, when you bring the Boss in, Bruce Springsteen, kind of Born In the USA, there’s probably no more powerful storyteller that could have delivered that message....I just thought it was well executed and a very powerful message coming from the Boss.
This is the same Springsteen who during a concert on the Today show plaza in September of 2007 launched into a unhinged political tirade accusing the Bush administration of “rendition, illegal wiretapping, voter suppression, no habeas corpus, the neglect of our great city New Orleans and the people, an attack on the Constitution and the loss of our best young men and women in a tragic war.”
“And the Boss himself joining forces with Jeep, calling on Americans to meet in the middle after the tumultuous political year,” correspondent Janai Norman touted during a report on ABC’s Good Morning America. Minutes later, co-host and Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos spoke to left-wing pundit and advertising executive Donny Deutsch about the supposedly unifying ad. Deutsch celebrated: “Here we have this ad that anybody can agree is this marvelous message about the United States reuniting...” Apparently partisan Democrats all agreeing on something equals unity.
“[Springsteen] was in a commercial for Jeep that resonated with me at least,” co-host Tony Dokoupil told viewers on CBS This Morning, before turning to USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour to ask: “What worked for this ad for you?” She fawned: “Yeah, this was one of my favorites. You know, it’s Bruce Springsteen. You can’t go wrong with him. But I think he really hit the note – or this ad really hit the note of the theme of unity....it wasn’t preachy, it was just really, really heartfelt. And that’s why I really liked it.”
In 2007, just days after Springsteen’s Today show tantrum, CBS’s 60 Minutes lavished him with praise as “an artist in progress” who was “questioning whether America has lost its way at home.”
Just before Barack Obama was sworn into office in January of 2009, Springsteen couldn’t resist the urge to kick the departing Republican president on his way out. He tarred the Bush administration as a “nightmare” in which “thousands and thousands of people died” and “lives were ruined.”
During a 2014 Veterans Day concert, an event specifically designed to promote national unity, Springsteen instead performed anti-war and anti-military songs.
In April of 2016, the liberal networks eagerly cheered on the wealthy celebrity as he attempted to bully North Carolina into revoking a religious freedom law.
After vacationing with the Obamas on a luxury yacht the following year, Springsteen promptly released an anti-Trump protest song.
Springsteen has looked for opportunities to reciprocate the leftist media adulation. For example, in 2014, he introduced then-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams at a New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony, referring to the soon-to-be-disgraced journalist as what you would get “if Walter Cronkite and Jon Stewart had had a baby.”
Despite the sycophantic claims from NBC, ABC, and CBS, Bruce Springsteen is the least qualified person to talk of unity or meeting in the middle. Perhaps he should lead by example and apologize for all the disunity he’s fostered.
NBC’s Springsteen fandom was brought to viewers by State Farm, ABC’s was brought to viewers by Target, and CBS’s was brought to viewers by Volvo. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a transcript of the February 8 coverage on NBC’s Today show:
7:30 AM ET TEASE
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: We need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground.
HODA KOTB: Back now, 7:30. That was one of the Super Bowl ads that caught a lot of eyes last night. A rare commercial appearance by the legendary Bruce Springsteen, talks about we don’t need to be on the right or the left, we need to be in the middle. That was a Craig Melvin favorite.
CRAIG MELVIN: It was wonderful.
KOTB: Talk about that coming up.
MELVIN: Two-minute ad. The Boss doesn’t do Super Bowl commercials, he’s never done one. But he scored that entire commercial. We’ll look at that one and a lot of the other ones.
(...)
8:19 AM ET SEGMENT
MELVIN: Yeah, another car company kind of gave you the feels last night, too. That Jeep commercial. And Al was a big fan of this one as well. But this Jeep commercial, Mike, Bruce Springsteen doesn’t do Super Bowl commercials, he did it last night. Here’s just a snippet of it. We’ll talk about it, Mike, on the other side.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: We need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground. So we can get there. We can make it to the mountaintop. Through the desert, and we will cross this divide.
MELVIN: Mike, I mean, here’s Springsteen calling for reunity. It was so effective, what made it work?
MIKE JACKSON [2050 MARKETING]: You know, the thing that worked for me is it's really consistent with the Jeep brand positioning as this kind of global iconic American brand. And, obviously, when you bring the Boss in, Bruce Springsteen, kind of Born In the USA, there’s probably no more powerful storyteller that could have delivered that message. And then last but not least, you couldn’t tell that story in a 30-second spot. The fact that Jeep bought four – excuse me, two minutes to tell that story to travel to the middle of the country within the last few weeks, I just thought it was well executed and a very powerful message coming from the Boss.
(...)
Here is a transcript of the coverage on ABC’s GMA:
7:41 AM ET
(...)
JANAI NORMAN: And the Boss himself joining forces with Jeep, calling on Americans to meet in the middle after the tumultuous political year.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: And we need that connection. We need the middle.
(...)
7:47 AM ET
DONNY DEUTSCH: You know, the very challenge advertisers had this year is they’re going against the backdrop of so much controversy, so much conflict, coming out of the pandemic. Yet, advertisers are afraid to step in any political minefields, be too politically correct, be too politically incorrect. And I think the symbol of all that was right in what advertisers were trying to do but how they were hindered was the Bruce Springsteen ad for Jeep. Here we have this ad that anybody can agree is this marvelous message about the United States reuniting, yet there was not a human in the ad. And it showed how advertisers are in a struggle right now. How do we depict America? What does America look like? And we can’t even agree on how to kind of humanize America right now. So I thought it was fascinating. It was a message about unity, but yet there were no humans in it. And therein lies the real minefield, kind of the irony of what advertisers are dealing with.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, all you saw was Bruce and heard his voice.
(...)
Here is a transcript of the coverage on CBS This Morning:
8:44 AM ET
(...)
TONY DOKOUPIL: Now, I don’t know if Bruce Springsteen put out a tweet, but he was in a commercial for Jeep that resonated with me at least. Didn’t make the top three, but I liked it a lot. In part because he’s driving a CJ-5 Jeep and my grandfather once had one of those. What worked for this ad for you?
NANCY ARMOUR [USA TODAY SPORTS COLUMNIST]: Yeah, this was one of my favorites. You know, it’s Bruce Springsteen. You can't go wrong with him. But I think he really hit the note – or this ad really hit the note of the theme of unity, which was one thing I think we were expecting to see. And some of the brands that tried it, it fell short. It was too much. And this just seemed to be – it wasn’t preachy, it was just really, really heartfelt. And that’s why I really liked it.
(...)
