Although Clint Eastwood and I differ on the subject of gun control I have great admiration for his work - especially for his work as a director. He is really in the top 5 as far as I am concerned.
I immediately took notice of the commercial for Chrysler that aired during the Superbowl. I thought that it was forceful and uplifting in so far as it reminded us that America is in the ascendancy again. We Americans work hard; we are smart and we can produce high quality products here in the USA that are capable of competing well with foreign designs and foreign produced products.
This does not mean that the foreign produced products are not good too. Many foreign autos have a well deserved reputation for quality, performance, and reliability. Detroit might have lost its edge for a while by not producing the products that the public wanted or decides that it wants whenever the price of fuel goes up. But Detroit now has a rich product offering that is at least as good, and sometimes better then the foreign competition. That American made products create and sustain American jobs ought to be important to us because even if we do not work directly in the automobile business employees of American auto companies spend their money here in the USA and consequently benefit the American economy. Auto workers eat in the vast restaurant sector that is a large part of our economy. Their children go to American schools and colleges and they buy houses. It is all to the better.
In times of relatively balanced trade I would purchase an American or a foreign auto (if I needed one). But when global trade is tilted against American made products I would give a preference to buying American.
So it seems strange that any American would want to complain about that commercial. Yet those old farts Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove did just that.
Those guys and their minions would complain if a dog pissed on the wrong side of the road! They just like to complain because for them and Michelle Malkin everything needs to be cast into a political debating point. The bailout of Detroit was a very good thing. It began under President Bush and was continued vigorously by the Obama administration.
The automobile industry is vast, far vaster than many people conceive it to be. It includes many suppliers of parts to the assembly plants. It includes distribution, transportation (of the product and parts) sales and marketing. All of these activities are good for America.
My only complaint about the commercial during the Superbowl is with the NFL. 30 seconds before the Chrysler commercial all the NFL brass and announcers were standing in a huge elevated box with the brand "Toyota" prominently displayed on the sides for the cameras. Apparently the NFL doesn't mind having its bread buttered by both sides. They are, in my humble opinion, all a bunch of whores.
The Superbowl is a huge entertainment event that is enjoyed by many. The commercial time is overpriced; the tickets are overpriced and the event is overly commercial. That is true for other sports too, but the NFL really takes it to an extreme. Because the advertising is so overpriced consumers have to pay more for the products that are advertised whether they watch the Superbowl or not.
Advertising is a huge tax on all of our consumer products. That tax does not pay for schools, for roads, or for our necessary public services.
Consumers would do well to pay less attention to advertising and shop smart by comparing products in advance of shopping. A lot of comparison can be done now a days over the internet and you may as well mute the TV when those many repetitive commercials come on every 5 to 10 minutes. Or record your favorite shows and skip right past them. Most of them are so useless and annoying. The Clint Eastwood Chrysler one was an exception. After all the Superbowl is now known for its sometimes creative commercials and that is OK.
