Good article in the London Metro this morning about the Chyrsler ‘half time in America’ ad featuring Clint Eastwood that I talked about last week.

The article praises the ad for the boldness of going for such a social level rather than showing you a car and talking about 0-60 performance and price.

But apparently the ad has been causing political debate over in the US with Republicans labelling the ad a piece of Democrat propaganda. Personally, I think it’s hard to see what Karl Gove is calling ‘a thinly veiled Democratic appeal’ as the ad contains no political message. It might suggest many things to many people, but that’s the beauty of great advertising.

I think the main issue Republicans have with it is the positive message. That there might be another way to look at the current economic situation than complete doom and gloom is not something they’d like people to think.

Superbowl ads: yet another opinion.

It’s been a busy week so I’m a bit late posting this.

For all the hype around Honda’s Ferris Bueller ad, or most likely because of it, I was a bit bored by the thing itself.

Great, great choice of cultural reference, in addition riding the seemingly unending wave of 80s nostalgia, this has been ripe for ad exploitation for a while. But I wasn’t as into the ad as I was the thought of it.

Had no idea what was going on with the VW ad. It seemed like 2 ads in one. Again like the Bueller ad I think it became a victim of overhype. ‘The Bark Side’ preview was more interesting than the SuperBowl ad itself.

For me, Wieden & Kennedy Portland’s Chrysler ad ‘It’s half time in America’ blew everything else out of the water. Following on from last year’s ad, it continues the message of American exceptionalism and moves Chrysler’s image away from bloated, out of touch car manufacturer towards something more in tune with the battered but resilient, ‘true American’ spirit of their home town of Detroit. Brilliant, brilliant idea. Clint Eastwood’s gravelly voice and and stirring score make the hairs on your neck rise.

I don’t know if this got shown outside of the UK but Julian Temple’s brilliant documentary about Detroit from a few years ago seems like it could have been a starting point for the tone and message of this campaign.

BBC Documentary: Requiem For Detroit from Logan Siegel on Vimeo.