Ford CEO Jim Farley Calls for 'Smokey Bear' Campaign to Promote Skilled Trades as AI Fears Grow Among Gen Z
Ford CEO Jim Farley is partnering with the Ad Council, Home Depot, Dycom, and The Wallace Foundation to launch a national campaign promoting skilled trades careers, warning that AI anxiety is steering young people away from essential jobs facing a critical shortage.
Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley is calling for a national advertising campaign to promote skilled trades careers, arguing that young Americans are being steered away from essential jobs by a college-only mindset and growing anxiety about artificial intelligence replacing entry-level work.
Speaking at the Ford Pro Accelerate event at Michigan Central in Detroit, Farley said the country is now «paying that price» for decades of telling young people that a four-year college degree was the only path to the American dream. He argued that college «is not the only path to a great life in America» or to starting a business, «especially in the age of AI.»
Ford is partnering with the Ad Council, Home Depot, Dycom, and The Wallace Foundation to address what the company describes as a deepening skilled-trades crisis. The effort aims to replicate the cultural impact of iconic public service campaigns like «Smokey Bear» and «got milk» — this time to change perceptions about careers in mechanics, electrical work, plumbing, welding, and other trades.
Mark Truby, Ford's chief communications officer, said the initiative began with the company's commercial customers. «We were hearing about the skilled trades gap more and more,» Truby said, relaying anecdotes about dealerships that «can't hire enough mechanics, even though the wages are good.» He described his own three Gen Z sons, aged 19 to 24, as being «a little bit paranoid that AI might replace the job they might go to school for.»
The concern is backed by recent economic data. The New York Fed reported unemployment among recent college graduates at 5.7% in June, compared with 4.1% for all workers. Stanford economists found in August that employment among workers aged 22 to 25 in highly AI-exposed occupations is about 19% below where it would have been had it kept pace with less-exposed jobs — up from 15% a year earlier. The researchers noted the adjustment comes mainly through reduced hiring of young workers rather than layoffs, though they cautioned their findings are descriptive patterns, not causal estimates.
Other economists have pointed to different explanations. Harvard's David Deming has emphasized remote work as a factor, while Apollo's Torsten Slok noted that the graduate unemployment gap began widening about six months before ChatGPT's release. A separate study by Ramp and Revelio Labs found that entry-level headcount at companies with heavy AI spending actually grew 12% over two years.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades — formed by Ford in partnership with BlackRock, Google, and Carhartt — estimated in a report that employers will need to fill approximately 1.7 million skilled-trades openings each year through 2035.
At the Detroit event, comedian and Ford spokesperson Nate Bargatze joked about his own lack of a degree, saying college «wasn't for me.» Jillian Marquez, a senior fabricator at Roush Automotive, said she left college after less than two months and encouraged young people to consider the trades regardless of gender or physical build. «It's really all about your mindset,» she said.
Michelle Hillman, the Ad Council's chief campaign and program officer, said the campaign is currently in a fact-finding phase and will eventually run across channels using donated media time and space. She described the effort as «additive» to work already being done by other companies tackling the skilled-trades shortage.
Dycom President and CEO Dan Peyovich said in a statement that «our ability to grow the economy depends on having the skilled workforce to build and sustain it.» He added that the campaign starts with «helping people understand what careers in the trades look like today and what they offer: a path to rewarding work, real opportunity and a sustainable long-term career.»
Jean Desravines, president of The Wallace Foundation, said his organization hopes the campaign «will unlock the American Dream for so many of our young people who have felt that it was somehow out of their reach.» He noted that a vibrant future is not possible without young people having well-paying jobs and viable careers that lead to stability.
Farley first raised the idea at last year's Pro Accelerate event, recalling a conversation with his own son, who said at the dinner table, «I don't know why I need to go to college,» after working as a mechanic during the summer and loving it. This year, Ford is formally partnering with the Ad Council and other organizations to turn that sentiment into a national movement.
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