Oklahoma Favorite Son Still Champions Farmers, 35 Years Later
Paul Harvey Wins the Super Bowl
By Rich Lowry – February 5, 2013
In the 4 1/2 hours of ceaseless spectacle that was Super Bowl XLVII — even the Roman numerals are excessive — there were only two minutes that made you stop and truly listen. They were courtesy of Paul Harvey, the late great radio broadcaster.
Chrysler had the inspired idea to make two minutes of his speech at a 1978 Future Farmers of America convention into the soundtrack for an ad for the Ram truck while affecting still photos of American farm life scrolled on the screen.
The spot stuck out for how thoroughly un-Super Bowl it was. It’s a wonder that CBS didn’t refuse to air it on grounds that it wasn’t appropriate for the occasion. It was simple. It was quiet. It was thoughtful. It was eloquent. It was everything that our celebrity-soaked pop culture, which dominates Super Bowl Sunday almost as much as football does, is not.