Ford Advertises with Tupac's Poem "The Rose That Grew From Concrete"

A team chisels a car out of a block of concrete while a voice-over speaks Tupac’s poem The Rose That Grew From Concrete. With this commercial, Ford launched its “A Rose” campaign for the new Fusion on November 19, 2012.

Verses as the Blueprint for the Design

Actor Andre Royo (The Wire) appears in the commercial. Ford manager Shawn Thompson called the poem the “perfect description” of how the car’s design came about. According to Vibe, the campaign specifically targeted African American buyers and also ran on radio, in print, and on the web.

Complex Reports License, Others Question Clearance

The poem comes from the 1999 poetry collection (book) and the 2000 spoken-word album on which celebrities read Tupac’s texts. Complex and FACT reported that it had been licensed. Music Feeds and others, in contrast, asked whether the estate had agreed.

rap.de quipped that Tupac was remarkably good at staying in the conversation. The commercial shows how Tupac’s work was increasingly used for advertising after 1996-in one case with an open rights question.