Exclusive Interview with National FFA Foundation on Ram Campaign
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
The Ram trucks Super Bowl commercial entitled “Farmer” featuring the voice of Paul Harvey reciting the popular speech “So, God Made a Farmer” was powerful not only because of its message, but also because it sought to kick-off a yearlong campaign to raise money for the National FFA Foundation, while declaring 2013 “The Year of the Farmer.”
In an exclusive interview with Farms.com, Rob Cooper, Executive Director of the National FFA Foundation shares some of the excitement surrounding the campaign. When asked about the initial thoughts of the commercial, Cooper remarked “we couldn’t be more pleased with the commercial and the attention that it’s getting.”
The campaign couldn’t be more fitting, as National FFA seeks to equip future generations to meet the challenges of feeding a growing population. “One of our goals as National FFA is to certainly be the voice of agriculture and ag-education and help educate people about the importance of America’s number one industry…” said Cooper.
Cooper says, “…It’s been a huge platform sharing the positive side of agriculture.” From National FFA perspective, the commercial helped target the non-ag audience which then makes it easier for the agriculture community to engage in a dialogue about issues relating to food and farming.
Ram has been a long-time supporter of FFA, helping to fund many programs and initiatives over the years. The collaboration process began when Ram approached FFA saying that they had a unique advertising and marketing plan for 2013. “We felt very strongly that our cliental would respond positively to the messages in the campaign and help to lift up the conversation about how important agriculture is in America,” explained Cooper.
When asked how the response has been thus far through the campaign, Cooper expressed “we have been overwhelmed with the response by FFA members and supporters…everyone is so excited to see the American farmer getting some very positive attention.”
The funds raised from the campaign will go towards supporting FFA’s hunger initiatives. In fall of 2012 at the National FFA convention the organization revealed its hunger platform for 2013 which is entitled “feeding the world starting at home.”
“The funds from this campaign are going to really help us drive that message home in local communities and how our states and chapters really understand the face of hunger where they live and work and more importantly develop a long-term action plan to really positively affect the issue,” said Cooper.
Since the campaign started on Sunday, it’s been all hands on deck for FFA encouraging its members and supporters to get involved with the campaign – working towards hitting the 10 million video views required for Ram to donate $1 million to FFA.