Editor’s Note: This piece was updated to include Springsteen’s recent arrest.
Singer Bruce Springsteen, who supported Joe Biden and bashed Donald Trump during the 2020 election, appeared in ad during Sunday night’s Super Bowl to promote unity and political healing.
The two minute commercial, titled “The Middle,” was for automaker Jeep.
**UPDATE: On February 10th, TMZ reported that Springsteen had been arrested for DWI back on November 14th, months before his new Super Bowl ad for Jeep aired.
The charges apparently include DWI, reckless driving, and consuming alcohol in a closed area.
The Super Bowl ad itself heavily featured Springsteen driving around a snowy landscape in a Jeep.**
Springsteen is well-known for positioning himself as a friend of the blue collar worker.
Watch the full ad below.
Springsteen: ‘It’s No Secret The Middle Has Been A Hard Place To Get To Lately’
Springsteen says in the ad, “It’s no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately.”
“Between red and blue, between servant and citizen, between our freedom and our fear,” Springsteen says. “Now fear has never been the best of who we are.”
“And as for freedom, it’s not the property of just the fortunate few,” the singer continues. “It belongs to us all.”
Then he said Americans need to get back to “the middle.”
Springsteen said, “Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, it’s what connects us, and we need that connection.”
“We need the middle,” he insisted.
The chief marketing officer of the company that owns Jeep spent 10 years gently pitching Springsteen’s manager on ideas for a commercial, to no avail. A few weeks ago, in a surprise, Springsteen said yes. This is like a business school case study: https://t.co/VofjcVt07z
— Joel Siegel (@joelmsiegel) February 7, 2021
Springsteen Said He Would Leave The U.S. If Trump Was Re-elected
Recall that during the presidential election, Springsteen said he would leave the U.S. if Trump won re-election.
Springsteen told an Australian paper, “If Trump is reelected — which he will not be; I’m predicting right now he’s gonna lose — if by some happenstance he should be, I’ll see you on the next plane,” meaning he would fly to Australia.
That wasn’t the only time Springsteen eschewed ‘the middle.’
In 2020, Springsteen claimed that President Trump was a “threat to democracy.”
“I believe that our current president is a threat to our democracy. He simply makes any kind of reform that much harder. I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship. These are all existential threats to our democracy and our American way of life.”
Springsteen also performed at Joe Biden’s inaugural ceremonies last month, and had endorsed Biden for president prior.
In the ad, Springsteen continues: “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.”
At the end of the commercial, you see the words “To the ReUnited States of America.”
Jeep's #SuperBowl commercial stars @springsteen, who has avoided ads for decades.@Jeep CMO Oliver Francois has been chasing the Boss for 10 years, but finally landed him for the spot that calls for unity in deeply divided America. #AdAgeSuperBowl https://t.co/vkg9jYsIvq
— Ad Age (@adage) February 7, 2021
‘All Are More Than Welcome To Come Meet Here, In The Middle’
At the center of the ad is the U.S. Center Chapel in Lebanon, Kansas, which is located at the geographic “middle” of the United States.
“It never closes,” Springsteen observes. “All are more than welcome to come meet here, in the middle.”
If Donald Trump were still president, do you think Bruce Springsteen would be featured in commercials urging Americans to meet in the middle?
I didn’t either.
Watch the full ad here: