by “Fear has never been the best of who we are,” Springsteen says in the ad. “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.”
Springsteen has spent decades turning down all requests to appear in ads, or even for his songs to do so; he famously declined an offer to use “Born in the U.S.A.” in Chrysler ads in the ’80s. Francois, in particular, has been pursuing Springsteen for an ad for a decade, without success until now.
The concept of the commercial – based around a chapel at what is supposed to be the precise geographical center of the United States – appealed to the Springsteen camp. “Olivier Francois and I have been discussing ideas for the last 10 years,” Springsteen manager Jon Landau said in a statement, “and when he showed us the outline for ‘The Middle,’ our immediate reaction was, ‘Let’s do it.’” Springsteen didn’t decide to do the ad until last month, which meant production was unusually quick, according to Variety.
Springsteen was, until now, one of the few remaining musicians to resist the advertising world; even his hero Bob Dylan has done ads for Victoria’s Secret and Chrysler, while younger musicians from Taylor Swift to Travis Scott collaborate with brands as a matter of course.
