People rarely pick a fight with Dirty Harry.
But Chrysler's "Halftime in America" ad featuring quintessential tough guy Clint Eastwood has generated fierce debate about whether it accurately portrays the country's most economically distressed city or amounts to a campaign ad for President Barack Obama and the auto bailouts.
The ad equates Detroit as a model for American recovery as idealistic images of families, middle-class workers and factories scroll across the screen.
"People are out of work and they're hurting," the 81-year-old Eastwood says in his trademark gravelly voice. "And they're all wondering what they're gonna do to make a comeback. And we're all scared because this isn't a game. The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together. Now, Motor City is fighting again."
Conservatives, including GOP strategist Karl Rove, criticized the ad as a not-so-thinly veiled endorsement of the federal government's auto industry bailouts. Others questioned basing a story of economic resurgence in a city that remains in fiscal disarray, with a $200 million budget deficit and cash flow concerns that have it fending off a state takeover.
But is it political? It depends on whom you ask.
"I can't stop anybody from associating themselves with a message, but it was not intended to be any type of political overture on our part," Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne told WJR-AM in Detroit on Monday. "You know, we're just an ingredient of a big machine here in this country that makes us go on."
Last year was a pivotal turnaround year for Chrysler, which nearly collapsed in 2009. The company and its financial arm needed a $12.5 billion government bailout and a trip through bankruptcy protection to survive. Chrysler has since repaid its U.S. and Canadian government loans by refinancing them, but the U.S. government says it lost about $1.3 billion on the deal.
The Eastwood ad follows a one aired last Super Bowl that featured stark images of hip-hop star and Detroit-native Eminem driving a Chrysler 200 through the city streets and introduced the tagline "Imported From Detroit."
This time around, the focus was on faces and factories.
Rove told Fox News on Monday that he was "offended" by Chrysler's ad, saying it amounted to "using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising and the best-wishes of the management which is benefited by getting a bunch of our money that they'll never pay back."
The Associated Press
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