Mother Jones: Chrysler's Deplorable "Detroit" Super Bowl Ad

[whatchamacallit]

Last night I offended some DUers with my harsh critique of Chrysler's Super Bowl Ad. I'm sorry for that. It was certainly not my intention. As I was getting my ass kicked, I learned some things about the auto industry, and the people and communities connected to it. That said, I think we can have differing opinions on a car ad without taking it personally. Apparently, I am not the only one who didn't get "goosebumps".

But there's a lot to dislike here: the fact that a major bailout recipient is dishing beaucoup bucks for a one-off ad to boost its image; the cynical racism (or at least colonialism) of positioning Chrysler as a tough, gritty, 8 Mile-style brand that's perfect for what marketers call the "urban core" demographic; and using Detroit poverty porn to hawk your product while simultaneously trying to deride the media's recent Detroit poverty porn. (To be fair, maybe Chrysler ended up with a crappy commercial because the word's out on Madison Avenue that Chrysler also counts its advertising firms among the many parties it screws over. One of its previous ad execs complained that Chrysler "makes cars which no one wants and continues to throw money at them...and now, they want us to bail them out.)

But most appalling is the idea that Chrysler is one of the great things about gritty Detroit and America, when in fact it's one of the corporate locusts that choked the city and nation purple with its credit-backed gobbling of skilled labor and its excretion of abandoned worker plants. It's as if some Wall Street marketer hired by Chrysler was stuck at his social-worker sister's apartment in West Harlem and skimmed her copy of the November/December Mother Jones while she was preparing two cups of kombucha in the kitchen. Because, clearly, the creators of this ad read Charlie LeDuff's amazing elegy for his hometown...and, clearly, they didn't get it at all.

More, including a list of plants closed since 1980, here: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/chrysler-deplorable-detroit-super-bowl-ad

[msongs]

1. yeah but you get a free Eminiem CD to play for your younger kids nt

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. Hmmmmmmmmm

if the writer blames Chrysler for the problems in Detroit, he has to blame GM and Ford also................

[BoWanZi]

3. Hate to say it but because of your post, I watched the clip on Youtube and liked it

I just wonder if the new Chysler 200 will be made in Mexico or Canada? LOL

[NuclearDem]

4. It's being assembled in a union factory in Detroit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Heights_Assembly

Besides, Chrysler's on the fast track to repaying the TARP bailout.

Maybe Mother Jones could do its research next time before declaring Sterling Heights a defunct plant. The new Chrysler bought the plant from its old holdings and is keeping it open.

[BoWanZi]

6. Now that is pretty damned awesome. Might be a small drop in the bucket, but good news anyway.

I hope they repay the TARP. I remember in the early '80s how they paid back the money that Iaccoca got them very quickly.

[Luminous Animal]

21. Closed or DOWNSIZED. It's as if people refuse to read the words in front of their very eyes.

[NuclearDem]

22. Uh, no.

Sterling Heights has the same number of workers it did (1200)

The Mother Jones article is full of inaccuracies about those plants.

[Luminous Animal]

24. It was downsized in 2007.

[NuclearDem]

28. Yes, when production of the Stratus was sent to Russia

I'm not arguing that.

I'm saying Chrysler isn't downsizing because of the 200. If anything, making the 200 more popular through a great ad like this may very well open new manufacturing jobs in SH.

[JVS]

31. You can't call Mother Jones' info a lie just because it isn't the claim you're making.

They said those plants have closed or downsized. They have.

If you want to make claims about what has happened due to the 200, that has no bearing on the veracity of MJ's statement.

[Luminous Animal]

37. The article never claimed that the Sterling plant is downsizing because of the 200. Not even close.

And 19 MPG city? It deserves to fail.

[Blue_Tires]

47. Ironically, Chrysler was the last company to make a car

in Detroit's actual city limits -- The Viper was made at the Conner Ave. Plant....

My Mustang was of course build in Flat Rock :patriot:

[Barack_America]

5. The ad was more of a mea culpa than we've ever gotten from the banks. nt

[JVS]

10. Chrysler playing that ad is as distasteful as a serial rapist singing lovesongs.

[Barack_America]

15. They still put food on the table for a lot of Michigan families.

[JVS]

17. Their decisions have a lot to do with why Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates...

in the USA.

[Pirate Smile]

7. I loved the ad. I get that the RW hated it and a few on the left-side did as well. I just disagree.

I think it was great. I think we just may be focused on different parts of the issue. People just love a comeback and are rooting for Detroit & the Big Three to come roaring back.

[Mojeoux]

38. I liked it too. I grew up there, so maybe it's a "Detroit thing." nt

[Mojeoux]

39. I hate Hate hated hated the ad........"Test Baby." nt.

[JVS]

8. I gave you a rec, but it seems that the love for corporations is so strong that had unrecs.

[NuclearDem]

9. Ugh, this again?

I unrecced it because I loved the ad and the Mother Jones article so madly misinterpreted it it was actually insulting.

[JVS]

12. I will not stop stating the truth that the Chrysler does not care for your best interests!

[greyl]

11. Unrecced for your poorly worded whining about unrecs,

and the inaccuracies of the OP article.

[JVS]

13. The shareholders thank you.

[NuclearDem]

20. Deliberate lying in the MJ article isn't a way to take the fight to the ebul corporations

Most of the assembly plants in that article, if they weren't closed simply for the fact that Chrysler doesn't make certain brands anymore, are alive and well building Chrysler's new Grand Cherokees, 200s, or Rams.

That's another reason I unrecced. Seriously, take your patronizing elsewhere. It's getting old.

[JVS]

26. You mean the "lies" you mention upthread that are actually not lies?

Have fun with that.

[NuclearDem]

29. Lies, inaccuracies that could've been debunked in five minutes on Google and Wikipedia

Same thing.

[JVS]

30. Actually it seems like Luminous Animal and Mother Jones are the ones with better accuracy.

At least regarding closing and/or downsizing. Any other "lies"?

[NuclearDem]

32. I'm not arguing that some of those plants have been downsized

But when MJ blatantly says they've been "closed" when it's clearly not so, it's an inaccuracy.

[JVS]

34. Read the article more closely. Your misreading does not equal them lying.

[NuclearDem]

35. You're right, I did misread. Mea culpa.

:blush:

Not my finer moment...

[greyl]

23. They don't give a shit about this thread.

The OP is about an article about the commercial, not the harm that gasoline powered internal combustion engines have done to Earth, and it's not about over-payed CEOs.

The Mother Jones article, unfortunately, doesn't hit the bullseye.

Additionally, the OPer is resorting to the fallacy of appeal to authority as an attempted defense against his previous trouncing.

[JVS]

25. There's a lot more than this thread that they don't give a shit about.

Let's start a list of things they don't give a shit about. Here, I'll start it off.

1. Detroit.
2. Their employees.
3. Us.

[greyl]

36. Please try to deal with more than the subject line of posts.

-

Were there any false claims in the commercial? If so, please reveal them.
(I'm not talking about some failure to admit that Chrysler is evil)

[whatchamacallit]

33. I knew I wouldn't be alone

Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be others who viewed it as I did. Obviously it stings that your Gloat Boat sank so soon.

BTW "resorting to the fallacy of appeal to authority" is all I ever see from you guys in the dungeon. Have a nice evening greyl.

[greyl]

40. Were there any false claims in the commercial? If so, please reveal them.

Maybe that sounds familiar as well; being asked to present evidence.

[whatchamacallit]

41. It does sound familiar

sounds like straw. I never said any "false claims" were made by Chrysler. I simply thought the ad sucked because it was button-pushing and pandering. The rest happened in your noggin.

[Luminous Animal]

42. Similarly, GE is an environmentlist. It's great PR.

[greyl]

45. Moving the goalposts again.

My question wasn't a straw argument, it was an honest question.

I don't see where your complaint was that the ad was button-pushing and pandering.
If that was all your argument amounted to, I'd be like "yep, it's an ad alright".

[whatchamacallit]

46. So binary...

Did you bother to read my post from last night? What do you see (project) my complaint to be? Is the Mother Jones article "moving goalposts"? :shrug: It's a critique of a corporation shamelessly co-opting Michigan's history, pain, and pride, for branding. All the while ignoring it's part in the ruin. Your simplistic thinking won't serve you here.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Are they going to produce another one praising the maids that clean the CEO's toilet?

[JVS]

16. Only after firing most of the maids and slashing the remaining maids' wages.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. And, no doubt, telling us that it was for the maids' own good while waving the flag.

[JVS]

19. And using the story of these down and out maids for their own benefit.

[leftstreet]

43. +1

[WildEyedLiberal]

27. Wow, Mother Jones hates something. Yawn.

That's news?

[leftstreet]

44. K&R