Although last night's Super Bowl game was a hot competition, it was a less-than-stellar contest between marketers peddling their wares; however, one advertisement stood out among the pack.
That was Clint Eastwood's commercial for Chrysler, which declared that it was halftime in America.
This has pundits from various world's commenting left and right -- no pun intended. Ultimately, this is how it drills down:
From USAToday:
"It had zero political content," said Chrysler Group Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne on a Detroit talk radio program. "I think we need to be careful, and God knows I can't stop anybody from associating themselves with the message. But it was not intended to be any type of political overture on our part."
From Daily Kos:
I want to comment on one aspect of this ad specifically. The Eastwood/Chrysler ad very explicitly reflects the vision of national unity put forth by President Obama, not only in recent months (although he has done so in a more populist way recently) but going back to his earliest writings. His vision--"Obama's America"--centers around a strongly articulated sense of common national identity that links all Americans to one another.
From Bloomberg:
The views Eastwood expressed were his own and the undisclosed fee he received for making them is being donated to charity, Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said today.
From Politico:
“OK, that might be just a bit over-the-top, but the Chrysler Super Bowl ad ‘It’s Halftime In America’ narrated by Clint Eastwood certainly resembled a superbly crafted political ad,” wrote founder of The Left Call, David Sutton. “I don’t believe it was intended as a political ad of course, but after seeing the ad it felt like a huge endorsement of President Obama.”
Talking to The Huffington Post, Eastwood's longtime manager Leonard Hirshan said:
"I think that Rove and everybody, if they're sensible, would wonder why a longtime Republican and Libertarian would do that," he said. "Just think about that, how silly that is: It's not like [the ad] was done by a left-winger, like Paul Newman in his day. It was done by a Republican, and he was doing it about America. There's not anything political to do with it whatsoever. I don't want him to do commercials, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a PSA [public service announcement]. Period."
In a conversation with O'Reilly Factor producer Ron Mitchell, Clint Eastwood said:
"l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK."
It's crystal clear that Chrysler, Clint Eastwood and the White House have said there is not a connection; however, the Agents were more curious in one simple element: WHO wrote the script?
001 reached out to a Chrysler spokesperson who -- at the time of publication -- does NOT know who actually wrote the script.
The Agents believe it would be very helpful to understand who actually penned the script, whether it was Eastwood, an agency, Chrysler's PR department, etc. Knowing that fact would tell us a lot.
Now that we've heard from the parties involved is this simply a dead issue OR should we remain suspicious?
Is it a subliminal plug from the bailed-out Chrysler Co. to re-elect President Obama?
AND, if it is a subliminal message, is this setting a dangerous precedent going forward?
What say YOU?
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