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by Innovator (60.9k points)
Bruce Springsteen’s Jeep deal ended after his criticism of Donald Trump.

1 Answer

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by Apprentice (2.0k points)
selected ago by
 
Best answer

This claim is false; ultimately, it was created to be satire. Bruce Springsteen did not lose an advertising deal with Jeep because he criticized President Trump. 

Firstly, for context, Springsteen did indeed criticize President Trump at a recent concert, as attested by news articles from the New York Times and USA Today, among others. 

Trump Targets Harris Campaign’s Links to Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen - The New York Times

Bruce Springsteen fans support Boss in tussle with Trump

However, the truthfulness of this claim ends there. Possible inspiration and interesting backstory could be that Springsteen and Jeep did have an awkward partnership moment in 2021, when the singer was reported to have been arrested for driving while intoxicated mere days after a Jeep ad featuring Springsteen aired during the Super Bowl. The ad was removed from the internet following the rumor, although Springsteen was eventually cleared and the ad reinstated. 

The Bruce Springsteen DWI and Jeep Ad, Explained | GQ

Bruce Springsteen’s Drunken-Driving Charges Dropped by Prosecutors - WSJ

While this storyline may only add to the supposition of from where this Facebook post came, the fact remains that Springsteen has not done an ad with Jeep since (a quick Edge search of "bruce springsteen jeep" only yields results of this one commercial), which conflicts with the claim's implication that Springsteen had an advertising partnership with Jeep to lose. Aside from this four-year-old commercial, zero evidence exists of Springsteen and Jeep ever even collaborating. 

I looked into the Facebook account which posted this claim, "America's Last Line Of Defense," next. Firstly, one can see the word "satire" in the link posted in the above claim; clicking on their profile and searching their home page further then led me to their "Intro," which reads: The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real.

America's Last Line Of Defense | Facebook

If the validity of this claim seemed speculative before, it has now been reduced to pure satire. Obviously, the scary part of this is the 12,700 comments, most of which appear to take the post seriously. This Facebook account can't be much clearer in its biography that they pump out exclusively untrue, satirical content, although the actual post itself, which came with a caption about contacting Jeep's Operations Manager for interview, does not say that the post is untrue, hence the confusion and hence the necessity for fact-checking. 

He's not "The Boss"... - America's Last Line Of Defense | Facebook

For further information, a Snopes fact-checking article has also researched the validity of this claim. 

Bruce Springsteen lost advertising contract with Jeep after criticizing Trump? | Snopes.com

Satire
by Newbie (440 points)
0 0
This post explains that the claim about Bruce Springsteen losing a Jeep ad deal for criticizing Trump is false and comes from a satire page. The confusion may have started when Springsteen was briefly in the news for a DWI around the time of a Jeep ad, but the charges were dropped and the ad came back. There’s no real evidence that Jeep ended anything because of politics. Why do you think people often believe satire or fake news without checking the source?
by Novice (680 points)
0 0
This is such a thorough well-written, well-sourced, and the satire angle is a necessary element. There is one thing I would encourage you to flesh out: why satirical sites like "America's Last Line of Defense" are so credible. You touched on this in citing the 12,700 comments taken in by it, which really underlines the confusion between misinformation and satire. Do you think these pages are under an obligation to make more obvious their satire in the posts themselves, not just in the bio? And seeing if any credible news sources or public figures helped spread this claim further by accident, making the impacts of satire-as-misinformation even more tangible. Well done overall in calling out this one.

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