Chrysler Group LLC’s back-from-bankruptcy Super Bowl ad featuring Detroit rapper Eminem drew sharp-tongued criticism from conservative talk-radio host Mark Steyn, who sat in for Rush Limbaugh on Monday.
Steyn slammed the auto maker, which was rescued from bankruptcy by the federal government in 2009, for using “taxpayer dollars” and a rapper known for his lewd lyrics to signal its comeback to football fans.
“Taking $9 million of taxpayer money and making a slick ad to tell you that Detroit is the future of America,” Steyn said on air. “If it is, we’re all doomed.”
In Steyn’s rant, which is more than six minutes long, he described Detroit as looking like post-World War II Europe and said the literacy rate among city residents compared to that of third-world African nations. Steyn added he was surprised Chrysler could find an operating theater in Detroit to host the commercial’s final scene.
In the ad, images of a decaying building and an oil refinery flash on the screen before Eminem pulls a Chrysler 200 sedan in front of Detroit’s gleaming Fox Theatre.
The spot, which struck a chord with both Detroit residents and critics, portrays a comeback story for a city that’s “been to hell and back” as well as for Chrysler, which is trying regain its footing postbankruptcy.
Actions of the U.S. and Canadian governments did allow Chrysler’s assets to be quickly sold out of bankruptcy in 2009, but Steyn’s insinuation that Chrysler is federally owned is not exactly correct.
The governments own a relatively small stake in the reorganized Chrysler. Italian auto maker Fiat SpA received equity in the company in exchange for providing needed fuel-saving technology and a significant portion of stock was handed to the United Auto Workers’ retiree health-care trust.
Steyn’s criticism drew retort from a conservative radio host in Detroit, Frank Beckman. Both Beckman and Limbaugh’s shows are carried on Detroit’s WJR radio station.
“We know those problems, he’s not the first to notice them,” Beckman said, according to the Detroit News. “What would you have us do, just quit trying?”
from WSJ Bankruptcy Beat
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