Let’s fill the gaps.
Super Bowl 55 will be viewed by sports fans as a bit of an aberration and that would be it. However, the advertisement Jeep made about the exclusion of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from the US map caught the attention of petrolheads. What happened?
The punchline of the short is Bruce Springsteen wanting the country to unite. He spreads his message from a Kansas chapel. Spoiler alert: The place of worship is located in the middle of the lower 48. Before we move on to the automotive implications, it would be remiss to not mention that 33% of the state’s territory is in the upper peninsula. Other than the fact that the 26th United States of America is missing a significant portion of it, things get worse. Michiganders and avid enthusiasts will be aware that Jeep’s headquarters have been in Auburn Hills, Michigan, for many years.
Stellantis, the automotive group that owns Jeep, has the answer. According to the story, the advertisement’s image of the lower 48 is taken from a Kansas stone marker. A Jeep spokesperson stated that the purpose of the advertisement was symbolic of ‘the middle’ in the country. However, the larger message of the commercial is meant to be inspirational and inclusive for all Americans. We’d bet that the message of the ad shines regardless of how it goes. We don’t need to tell you that life has been difficult lately, but we still live here in the United States of America.