Hilarious... it wasn't an O-ad, but now that the right is railing against, of all people, Dirty Harry, they're doing their best to make it one.
I brought this up earlier but last year Chrysler had a similar ad and I don't recall it being criticized for being political. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SKL254Y_jtc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This year's ad's an issue now because its an election year but I'm with you that I don't think anything political is meant by it. It's just a stylish ad touting Chrysler's comeback.
For starters, it's a different ad - it promoted Detroit, but nowhere did it imply anything about the bailout or them being on their feet or anything related to Obama's message. And it still was criticized a ton because it came right after the bailout and people were wondering why they were spending government money on Superbowl ads. Yesterday's ad is different. I doubt it was particularly intentional, but I think it's easy to look at the first part of that ad and think "this is an Obama campaign commercial" rather than "this is a Chrysler ad". It fits every theme Obama has been talking up recently.
What, success? Recovering from the greatest economic collapse of this generation? I find it deliciously ironic that the right is against this. It's all bulls***. How wrong is it that half the country, at any given time, has a vested intrest in failure?
The ad was not political. Chrysler....nor any automaker...would ever put out an ad with any kind of political message. First of all... These companies are split between conservatives and liberals and it would create a mess internally. Second of all...these companies are hyper sensitive about pissing people off...particularly half of the population they are trying to sell too. Advertisers do not want to be political. They gain nothing from it....only lose. And the risk of backlash is real, scary, and lowers an ad exec job security both agency and client side. Trust me, they are about making money. They save the politics for lobbyists and donations to super pacs.
Should add two facts that the right seems to get muddled. The auto bailouts were bush-Obama. Both were involved. It was not just Obama. Two. The bailouts have been completely paid back. So Karl rove and others claiming tax payrs got fleeced is simply not reality.
Coincidence? Maybe, but I'll take it. That ad was seen by millions and millions of Americans and it did look like an Obama campaign spot much of the time, and with Clint freakin' Eastwood, one of my Hollywood heros (regardless of his political leanings) doing the talking. Too much! What a break for the President and his people.
So a positive message about banding together as Americans and overcoming fear and adversity is bad because it resembles the enemy political team's campaign message? Team politics... Loved the ad. Major props to Eastwood. This... is... America! (Yeah, it did read like an Obama ad. Does the O-team have a monopoly on coming together as one nation?)
As of right now, yes - because the other side's primary message is just blaming liberals for everything they can think of.
The ad was 100% political, which is why the right hates it. Any media event that makes Americans feel positive about the economy is bad news for the GOP and horrible news for Romney.
Both ads end with "Imported from Detroit" and this ad touts Detroit's comeback as a model for the America while the Eminem ad touted Detroit's comeback. I also didn't see anything in either ad about the bailout. You are right that there was criticism of the 2011 ad regarding spending money on the Superbowl but I don't recall any political criticism of the content when it was as much about the comeback of the Chrysler and Detroit as much as the 2012 ad. It's different in that it talks about America as a whole but its still the same message. Chrysler and Detroit are back. As a Detroit based car company that seems like the message they would want to get out on the Superbowl no matter who was in office. It just happens that they were bailed out and that its an election year but I think its a reach to say this ad was meant to be political. Karl Rove and David Axelrod's lives are about politics so I don't find it surprising that they are reading politics into it and trying to spin it for political advantage but otherwise reading pro-Obama into like bnb said seems more like a political Rorshach test when Chrysler's intention is to sell cars and they are clever enough to know that Clint Eastwood, America, football, and "hope" are things that market test well.
It didn't seem political at all to me. But this talk about it did get me thinking about what a great move it was by Obama. The majority of the citizens and certainly most republicans were against the auto bailout. Yet Obama used leadership and pushed it through despite that, and it's paid off. He deserves huge credit for taking a leadership role and going against the polls and general opinions at the time.
The Enimem ad didn't tout Detroit's comeback, because they hadn't really made a comeback yet - it touted Detroit and was trying to get people to look again at what Detroit was trying to do. There was no success message there. This new ad is much more definitive and says "what we came together and did worked". And what they did was get a bailout to get them back their feet. It's subtle, but they are two totally different messages. It's a good thing that everyone in this thread has basically agreed that it wasn't *meant* to be political, so no one is reaching. All that people are saying is that it reads like an Obama campaign ad - which it does. Except thus far, bnb is the ONLY person either here, in the media, or in the political class who's seen the ad as supporting Republican values. Beyond him, everyone who sees any politics in the ad agrees that it echos Obama's message. This isn't a "see what you want ad" - it pretty clearly leans one way.
He said: Republicans were probably thinking it was similar to the Republican message. Thus far, no other Republican here or anywhere else has seen it that way. If anyone think it has a political message, they universally see a pro-Obama message.
republicans hate america. they long for a fictionalized version that never existed. the group delusion is astonishing.
