TRUMP WINS AGAIN: Electric-Focused Car Ads Absent from Super Bowl After Exploding on Biden’s Watch.
Donald Trump made history on Sunday as the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl. The NFL celebrated Trump’s appearance by removing the phrase “End Racism” from the end zones for the first time since 2021, an acknowledgment of the president’s successful efforts to eradicate bigotry. It wasn’t the only thing missing from this year’s contest. In another promising development attributable to Trump’s leadership since taking office, there wasn’t a single Super Bowl ad touting electric cars as the vehicles of the future.
By contrast, seven different ads for electric vehicles ran during the Super Bowl in 2022, several months after President Joe Biden signed an executive order compelling U.S. automakers to ensure that by 2030 roughly half of all cars sold in the country would have fully electric or plug-in hybrid engines. General Motors, for example, ran an ad promising 30 new electric vehicle models by 2025, which turned out about as well as Biden’s promise to cure cancer. Six more electric-focused car commercials aired during the Super Bowl in subsequent years, including “Premature Electrification,” a Ram Trucks ad narrated by former Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones that compared being skeptical about electric vehicles to suffering from erectile dysfunction.
“How interesting,” said Larry Behrens, communications director of Power the Future. “Things have changed.” They certainly have. One of Trump’s first acts as president was repealing Biden’s executive order on electric vehicles. “With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers,” Trump said last month during his Inaugural Address. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”
On Sunday, only two automakers—Jeep and Ram—aired ads during the Super Bowl, and while both featured electric vehicles alongside gas-powered ones, they also channeled Trump’s remarks by emphasizing the importance of choice.
Speaking of Jeep: Why Harrison Ford is endorsing Jeep for Super Bowl 2025 ad.
Ford starred in a two-minute Jeep ad, directed by “A Complete Unknown” Oscar nominee James Mangold, and it was one of the night’s biggest surprises.
Set in a cabin in the wilderness, the earthy spot took advantage of Ford’s all-American quality.
“The longest thing we ever do is live our lives,” he began. “But life doesn’t come with an owner’s manual. Might’ve been nice, huh? But that means we get to write our own stories.”
The screen legend continued, with his signature dry sense of humor: “Choose what makes you happy. My friends, my family, my work make me happy. This Jeep makes me happy — even though my name is Ford.”
While Ford’s paycheck has not been revealed, the Hollywood Reporter said that major actors can command $3 to $5 million for a single Super Bowl ad, which cost $10 to $20 million to make.
Broadcaster Fox charged a record $8 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the big game.
Besides the brand name pun, Ford was a particularly inspired choice for Jeep, considering that while the leftist actor talks a good game when it comes to radical environmentalism, what actually makes him happy isn’t nothing of the sort: “‘I’m so passionate about flying, I often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger,’ he said in 2010.”