There’s an industry trade magazine I subscribe to. It’s called Advertising Age. I read it today and my eye caught a very disturbing headline… Dodge Suits Up for the SuperBowl.
As I read the news article, I quickly became infuriated. Apparently, Chrysler hired an expensive advertising agency, Wieden and Kennedy of Portland, Oregon to come up with the a SuperBowl TV ad.
So,Chrysler gets to bury $7 billion in tax payer dollars and if memory serves, they received another $8 billion from Uncle Sam, too. I called and asked to speak with Oliver Francois, marketing director at Chrysler for comment. He failed to return my call and his office wouldn’t comment on the Advertising Age article, either.
I don’t know who will read this but in case you’re not entirely up to speed on Chrysler’s melt down and their begging for federal bail out money, last year, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. They also buried $7 billion dollars of tax payer bail out money into their bankruptcy paperwork — citing the U.S. Government as a creditor they did not have any intention of paying back.
Excuse me?
The American people had no say when Chrysler went crawling to Capitol Hill on their hands and knees for money to save their company from certain financial collapse. Now they got the funds — they turn their backs on the same hard working Americans dollars that saved them from certain doom.
Wow, this gives me a nice warm fuzzy in ditching my Japanese built Acura and buying a Dodge truck now. Who wants to buy my Acura MDX Sports Utility Vehicle?
Where’s Lee Iococa on this issue of this blatant Chrysler immorality? Apparently, this is Chrysler’s way of saying, “Screw you, America. We got to have our Super Bowl ads.” This is like a druggie hooked on crack cocaine. Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and the big 3 automobile fat cats have to have their SuperBowl ads. It’s no different than the druggies who will do anything to get their next fix off crack cocaine.
I don’t know what sickens me more. The apathy of firms like Chrysler that steals $7 billion of tax payer dollars or the American people who should be screaming to their congressmen and congress women about this horrible injustice.
If Chrysler / Dodge has enough money to buy multi million dollar SuperBowl ads, they’re financially strong enough to pay the tax payers back. Why banks are getting all of the attention escapes me. Firms like Chrysler deserve to be dragged out into the hardh light of day and seen for the crooks they really are.
President Obama once called Chrysler a “pillar” of the industrial economy.
Chrysler invented the minivan and they own the Jeep brand. Nostalgia and a piece of Americana to be sure. But I would give anything right now to be a fly on the wall inside the oval office just to hear President Obama’s opinion of them now.
I can’t be the only person in America questioning why a SuperBowl ad is necessary? I already know where the local Dodge dealership is. I don’t an expensive, funny ad to tell me what I already know.
Right now, there are thousands of unemployed auto workers clinging onto their unemployment benefits checks. Why can’t Chrysler / Dodge skip the Superbowl ad and run a print ad like the one below?
“Dear American taxpayer.
We at Chrysler deeply appreciate the taxes that were used to save our company.
We endeavor to build the best cars and trucks built by hard working Americans.
The inexcusable mistake of burying $7 billion of TARP funds in our 2009 bankruptcy was not the right thing to do, and we have terminated those responsible for that deplorable act. We want you to know that the millions of dollars that Dodge could be spending on SuperBowl ads is now being used to help create more than 14,000 new jobs and re-open hundreds of Dodge dealerships.
We’re putting America back to work.”
February 9th, 2012 at 9:00 am
Obama I am sure loved the Chrysler ad, after all it sure sounded like a reelection ad for him.
August 15th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Time has passed, things have happened (rather than merely been speculated about)’
cf. money.cnn.com/2011/07/21/autos/chrysler_bailout_costs_gains/index.htm
which calls the bail-out a good bargain.
YMMV, but do show some fuller analysis vs. a knee-jerk conservative yelling.
June 28th, 2011 at 11:38 am
You totally missed who screwed the American tax payer out of $7B. Obama waived the government’s claim to the $7B so that Chrysler could continue to fund the bloated union pension plan that drove it into bankruptcy. (He did the same thing with GM.) Obama put the people who built all those crappy cars (or more importantly, their union bosses) ahead of the American tax payers who elected him. He should have run for president of the AFL CIO, not of the U.S., because he doesn’t care about the 80% of Americans who get ripped off by greedy unions.