Remember back at the beginning of 2013 when Mercedes-Benz ran an ad featuring Willem Dafoe as the devil seductively attempting to buy the soul of a young man for the price of a car? In the ad, you may recall, the devilish antagonist (Dafoe) attempts to seduce a young man to trade his soul for a life of glitz, celebrity and excess that comes from owning a spiffy new Benz.
If you haven’t seen the new commercial yet, have a look for yourself of what change looks like.
(The video has since been taken offline)
Just in case you missed it in the spot, you can clearly see the devil’s new ring at the bottom of this post.
The devil, however, was no red pajama wearing horned jape with a pitchfork and pointy tail. Rather, Mercedes portrayed him as a suave, well coiffed debonair gentleman (albeit with pointy fingernails) who also happens to be wearing an easily recognizable Masonic ring.
Right as the commercial starts, the Square and Compass was almost immediately noticeable (albeit in a quick flash on the screen). Seeing it used this way took more than a few by surprise. The original video published on YouTube has been taken down but you can still find it with a quick search.
Recently, the ad, featuring Kate Upton, Usher and of course Willem Dafoe, from February’s big football game, made its way back on the air waves this time, noticeably, without the use of the Freemason symbolism. It appears that Mercedes-Benz has removed the square and compass from the original commercial.
How, or why the square and compass came off is a bit of a mystery. After a brief search, I couldn’t turn up any press release or announcement saying it was being revised. Maybe this kind of change isn’t the sort of thing you state publicly?
Perhaps the change came from a deluge of comments and messages to Mercedes-Benz on Facebook the day the ad appeared.
Or, perhaps it was the post that went up about it on Mark Koltko-Rivera’s blog Freemasonry: Reality, Myth, and Legend, reposted here alerting those watching the day the commercial aired.
Maybe it was the petition that was started on Change.org (Mercedes-benz: Remove the Masonic Ring shot in your Super Bowl commercial titled, “Soul”. ) asking the iconic world wide brand Mercedes-Benz to, respectfully, remove the sacred symbol and stop a vicious cycle of linking Freemasonry with Satanism. With more than 2,800 signatures on the petition to date, whose to say if the auto manufacturer and felt the pressure to remove the tell tale symbol of Freemasonry.
But, change it they have.
Now the commercial, in both its long and short form, no longer bears the distinctive emblem of the fraternity prompting us to say:
Thanks Mercedes-Benz for breaking the cycle of linking Freemasonry and Satanism.
Now who can say that the Freemasons still dosen’t hold some sway…
Old Ad, New Ring, at 00:12
And, from later on in the extended cut commercial at 01:19
And, the before and afters:
