By Kate McLeod

Chevrolet's new ad campaign - "Our Truck, Our Country" is the theme - taps right into the aorta of patriotism. That seems right, especially for Chevrolet. But while I don't object to patriotism, I do object to using the blood of our heroes as a sales tool.

The ad uses a song composed by John Mellencamp for the campaign, which presents scenes of Americana interspersed with glimpses of some of the nation's most polarizing disasters and conflicts - our young men fighting, 9/11. The civil rights struggle is even called upon here. 

What galls me is Chevrolet's use of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, two events that have created such loss and have so deeply scarred us all, as a launching pad for its new full-size trucks. Based on all the flags, ribbons and bumper stickers I see on Chevy trucks, Chevy owners generally are patriots. But being a hero has nothing to do with what you drive.

A real hero

I lucked out when I met Pat Brown because I got to know a real hero. Pat, Captain of FDNY's Ladder 3, was walking up - not down - the stairs of the World Trade Center when the building collapsed. Pat, who was the most decorated fireman in the history of New York 's fire department, must have known he was going to die but when someone told him to come down his response was, "There are people up here. I'm going up."

There are heroes among us who don't wear a uniform and don't advertise.

Right after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August of 2005, a group of HUMMER owners, who have an organization call HUMMER Owners Prepared for Emergencies (HOPE), drove in a caravan down to New Orleans to use their vehicles in rescue and recovery. Another of my friends went on the mission, camping out in a local HUMMER dealership, which became a communications center for their efforts. They were there for days, working around the clock. HUMMER, which is part of GM just like Chevrolet, isn't using Katrina to sell its vehicles. They've got enough class to know the difference between right and wrong.

Bad or good intentions

It doesn't matter what the intentions were, what the marketing rationale was. This campaign takes advantage of our heroes and uses them to sell trucks. No company should ever take advantage of our heroes to sell anything. It's distasteful and more. America is a great and generous country, but those who put their lives on the line for the rest of us make up a small percentage of the population. Heroes don't do what they do for recognition. They are compelled to act. It's not rational. Or calculated. And it certainly isn't done to sell anything.

I'm sure a lot of Chevy owners are heroes who volunteered to help with Katrina or rushed to the World Trade Center . But for Chevrolet to use these two devastating events in our recent history for their ad campaign is thoughtless. They also use Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. - what does that say about Campbell-Ewald's understanding of the civil rights struggle?

And it's not just Chevrolet. I'm from the East, and we have a habit here on President's Day. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln appear in ads, usually for discount stores, telling us now's the time to buy some couch or a new plasma TV. It's disgusting.

Would it be better to use old heroes and old events? The Alamo? The Charge up San Juan Hill? Valley Forge? Gettysburg ? No, I don't think Pickett's Charge should be used to sell a truck, either.

Advertising can convince us that one thing is better than another. It can tap into our psychographics and demographics. Sometimes they hit it just right - we relate and go out and buy, buy, buy. It's the free market at work. Fine.

There is a limit. If they want to wrap the Silverado in the flag, I can accept that. But, advertising has no business taking our heroes and our humiliations, using them for commerce.