February 6, 2012, - 2:09 am
Best Supe Ad & A Word About Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler/Detroit Fraud
I thought the Super Bowl ads, this year, were particularly crappy and not funny, despite the star power and ever-escalating budgets for them and costs to air them. Please make those animated Coke polar bears go away. Um, did they not get the message from the unpopularity of the polar bear cans and bottles? Make it stop. My favorite ad was the one for Pepsi Max, below, and even that wasn’t that great because Pepsi has done this “embarrass the Coke driver” stuff at several Super Bowls before, so it’s not original. And truth be told, Pepsi Max tastes like gasoline. Coke Zero tastes better. Regis is the whole ad. Without him, it’s crap. Plus, Beth Littleford, the blonde chick playing the cashier is a raving leftist in real life. The Seinfeld ads weren’t bad, either. He’d probably pull that in real life. What was your favorite ad?
Then there is the Clint Eastwood “It’s Halftime in America” ad for Chrysler that everyone is raving about. Everyone, except me. At least, I think I’m the only Detroit-area resident that isn’t gushing like a spittoon and falling for his rah-rah/”the people of Detroit have done a 180″ BS. First of all, I had to laugh when I heard Clint Eastwood invoke “the people of Detroit,” and then say, “But we all pulled together.” Huh? Who is “we?” This dude lives in Carmel, California, where he was even the Mayor of the place. The only “pullin’ together” he did was when he took millions in Michigan Film Tax Credits–a drain on Detroit and the rest of the State–pushing us further into economic ruin.
He came here for a few weeks, stayed at a fancy hotel and ate at fancy restaurants in the suburbs while he filmed “Gran Torino” (read my review), then skedaddled the heck outta here (and who can blame him?) while he collected his several millions in the Michigan taxpayer funded “bailout” of his movie, to the tune of 42% of its budget. It was a silly program to give away money from Michigan businesses and taxpayers to Hollywood people. It was dreamed up and supported by liberals, including the liberal then-Governor Jennifer Granholm a/k/a Governatrix Gran-HO (who high-tailed it outta here not long after Clint did). And he took advantage of it, helping to further drain the Michigan economy. So, I’m not quite sure what ole’ Clint means when he says, “But we all pulled together.” Nuh-uh.
And here’s a reality check to what Chrysler paid millions to have Clint tell you: Detroit is NOT getting better. It’s getting worse. The city recently, at the last minute, averted the State’s Governor being forced to appoint an emergency manager because the city was about to go bankrupt. And that may still happen in the near future, depending upon how things go. The City Council President, Charles Pugh, recently announced he’s walking away from his foreclosed-upon condo. The downtown remains a ghost town–even in mid-day. Nearby Pontiac is bankrupt and the now defunct Pontiac Silverdome has grass and weeds growing all over its massive, abandoned parking lot.
It’s not getting better here, no matter how breathy the former Dirty Harry makes his voice sound in claiming otherwise. This isn’t a “Go ahead make my day” city. It’s a “Just go” city, whose day long ago died and was buried. I really hope that Detroit is NOT–contrary to Mr. Eastwood’s claims–the analogy for America’s destiny. It’s not halftime here in Detroit. It’s two seconds before time runs out and the final score is determined. And the other team is beating us in a blow-out. If and when Detroit comes back, it will be years from now. I wish this were not so, but wishing doesn’t make it better. I don’t know how anyone with a straight face can celebrate Detroit’s “comeback” that never was. But Clint Eastwood managed to do it (for mucho bucks, I’m sure).
Believe me, I’d love to see Detroit come back. It would be a good thing for me, my friends and neighbors here, and for America. But it’s simply a lie to say that has happened or even is happening, right now. Not even close. Just the opposite, in fact. There’s nothing wrong with American optimism. That’s what keeps us going. But it’s entirely another thing to engage in revisionism, which is what the Chrysler Eastwood ad is in its entirety. It’s just fiction. Maybe Chrysler “came back,” at a cost of a lot of jobs lost, a lot of dealerships forcibly closed for no legit reason, and a lot of tax dollars. But Detroit hasn’t come back. It remains on the brink.
A lot of people are making a big deal about how the ad doesn’t tell the real story of the Chrysler bailout and Obama takeover. And that’s true. It doesn’t. But, to me, the larger fiction–make that, outright fraud!–of the ad is the claim that Detroit has come around. It hasn’t. And it’s getting ever worse, to the point that the crime and foreclosures in surrounding suburbs have mimicked Detroit for several years now, to the point where the city borders are meaningless.
I’m glad that Chrysler graduated from last year’s BS move of using the disgusting and sleazy Eminem a/k/a Marshall Mathers, III as a spokesmodel. But I sarcastically add to that, “Thank Heaven for small favors.”
Detroit is not pulling together. It continues to come apart.
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Again, what was your fave Supe ad? And why? What did you think of the quality of ads in this year’s Super Bowl?
Tags: 2012 Super Bowl Commercials, Chrysler, Clint Eastwood, Coke Zero, Detroit, Halftime in America, It's Halftime in America, Michigan, Pepsi Max, Regis Philbin, Super Bowl ads, Super Bowl Advertisements, Super Bowl Commercials, Super Bowl XLVI Commercials
Your remarks are entirely accurate. My sister who lives in another state thinks that Detroit and the car companies have turned around. I’m going to have to give her the details about what really has been going on.
sturgis on February 6, 2012 at 2:46 am