It’s all about hope — that you’ll buy more stuff

Personally, I thought Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad kind of disingenuous and manipulative. I can understand why most Democrats liked it, since it appeared to express optimism at a time when a Democrat is in the White House. I can see why a horse’s ass like Karl Rove would hate it, since anything that veers from the GOP narrative that Obama is an evil Nazi-communist is bad for business. The business being zero-sum politics.

From a emotional standpoint, it’s a great ad. I just don’t like that the only time anybody talks about hope and optimism it’s because they want to sell you a new Chrysler 300 or a freaking Town & Country minivan. I guess my problem is with advertising in general. I dislike the fundamental purpose of every commercial ever made: to exploit human weakness in order to sell you a product you would not otherwise care about.

Buying a Chrysler vehicle from a global corporation isn’t going to make one bit of difference in a country dominated by global corporations (and, these days, by Super PACs). Yeah, it’s great that they’re building cars in Detroit again, but when’s the last time you visited Detroit? Plan to get there soon? Toyota and Honda have been building cars in the U.S. since the early ’80s. Unfortunately for Chrysler, they were the type of cars people actually wanted to own. That was the source of the company’s hard times, not a sneak attack by the Japanese.

If Chrysler’s message really does get people thinking about pulling together for the national good, wonderful. We could use some of that. Some hard work and self-sacrifice and volunteerism wouldn’t go amiss either. I suspect though, that the real impact will be just what the company intended: It will sell a few more cars.