Jeep's Super Bowl Ad Cut The Key Verse Of 'This Land Is Your Land'

Jeep's Super Bowl ad ran soundtracked to Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land following all the versus you had to sing in elementary school. Here's the thing — they missed the later verses, and that's insane, because the message aligns perfectly with (what should be) Jeep's view on private property.

Here's Jeep's ad:

And here's the verse that they went halfsies on in their spot, leaving out the second bit.

I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,

And all around me, a voice was sounding:

[This land was made for you and me.]

There was a high wall there that tried to stop me

A sign was painted said: Private Property,

But on the back side it didn't say nothing —

[This land was made for you and me.]

Woodie Guthrie, the guy who wrote "this machine kills fascists" on his guitar and wrote glowing odes to public works projects in the Depression, was way into the idea of America being for all Americans, rather than just rich assholes who wanted to rope themselves off from everybody else. He was a pretty socialist/communist kinda dude, and This Land Is Your Land is a good example of his ethos.

Here's the thing, Jeep has no good reason for cutting this anti-private-property line from its ad.

In fact, Jeep should be totally behind this verse!

Offroading, the offroading community, and the company that sells America its most offroad-ey vehicles should be in favor of public not private land. They should be supportive of land being open for everyone and they should be against restrictive private claims.

And this isn't just an open-riding question. America's greatest off road parks are state and federal run.

Glamis is on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Johnson Valley is on BLM land. Moab! Moab is on BLM land.

Ocotillo Wells is run by the state, as is Pismo Beach.

Offroaders are best served by public not private land — just look up how Ocotillo Wells was able to campaign through public channels to keep their open riding areas free. More than that, it looks to me like the feds and the states are better at keeping offroaders safe and well-districted.

Let me summarize: Jeep should support public land for offroading. There's a popular song supporting public land. Jeep even used that song in their Super Bowl ad. But then they left out the good part. They should have gone all the way.