Jeep is facing controversy from a fish conservation group after a Super Bowl ad featured an SUV driving through an aquatic habitat.
Chris Wood, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited, said the ad ‘glorified’ the destruction of nature to appeal to off-road thrill-seekers.
The ad aired on Feb. 4 and features a Jeep Wrangler splashing through a riverbed before driving over a waterfall.
Chrysler Fiat, Jeep’s automaker, defended the ad but this is the second time commercials by the company have drawn complaints since the Super Bowl.
Chrysler Fiat aired a Jeep ad on the Super Bowl featuring the SUV driving through water. Critics said it ‘glorified’ the destruction of an aquatic habitat
Trout Unlimited, one of the nation’s largest fish conservation groups, said the ad encouraged people to go off road and drive through nature in their vehicle
The automaker defended its ads but said there are no plans to run them again.
It claimed the spot with the Cherokee was shot on a flooded county road and another with a Jeep Wrangler was filmed in a man-made lake with a man-made waterfall on private land.
Wood said many of his group’s 300,000 members and supporters own Jeeps, but the images were upsetting.
‘Fish are tough and resilient critters, but they don’t do well with several-thousand-pound vehicles driving over their spawning grounds, tearing up the gravel where they lay eggs,’ he said. ‘Why someone would want to put out the idea that you should buy a Jeep so you could drive it up a creek is incomprehensible to me.’
The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported the ad flap last week. Pam Harrington, Trout Unlimited’s Nevada field coordinator, told the newspaper she was upset because she’s worked with ATV clubs in Idaho repairing damage caused by irresponsible drivers.
Jeep defended the ad saying the vehicle drove through a man-made lake. The above statement is featured throughout the ad to inform customers the car wasn’t driven through nature
The company doesn’t plan on airing the commercial again since it first premiered on the Super Bowl. It also faced controversy for its Ram pickup ad featuring audio from a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago
Stream habitat improvements are part of the extended efforts to protect endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest, where research shows riverbank disturbances and sedimentation destroys fish eggs.
Wood said he didn’t learn until this week that much of his membership was upset over the Jeep ads.
He had already written a personal letter of complaint Feb. 6 to Fiat Chrysler CEO and Chairman Sergio Marchionne after Wood’s son noticed the ad during the game.
The automaker also came under fire last week for another Super Bowl ad featuring a Ram pickup set against audio of ‘The Drum Major Instinct’ sermon delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago.
The 60-second spot included images of the truck with people helping others and hugging loved ones.
Critics said it omitted King’s words in the same speech guarding against advertisers exploiting consumers, including when the civil rights icon said, ‘In order to make your neighbors envious you must drive this type of car. … And you know, before you know it, you’re just buying that stuff. That’s the way advertisers do it.’
A company spokeswoman said that ad ‘was selling the message of serving in your community.’
Wood, who worked as chief spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service under the Clinton administration before joining Trout Unlimited in 2001, said Fiat Chrysler apparently ‘got some bad marketing advice’ on the Jeep campaign.
He said there are plans to connect with a Jeep branch representative for a ‘broader conversation.’
‘Hopefully something good will come of this, and we can begin a dialogue with Jeep to promote smart use of off-road vehicles as well as conservation of natural resources,’ Wood said.