image ripped from Jalopnik

Like many Americans, I watched the Superbowl and commercials with equal enthusiasm and enjoyed both. I thought the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad at halftime was excellent. It never occurred to me that this was an overtly political ad, or endorsing Obama’s re-election, or supportive of corporate bail-outs. Who knew? Apparently I am not sufficiently politicized to recognize the offensive polarizing nature of the ad.

I naively saw the ad as simply a straight-line continuation of the theme and style of Chrysler’s excellent “Imported from Detroit” Eminem ad last year. [My Donk permissions do not permit me to embed the videos, but the 2011 Eminem ad is linked here and the 2012 Eastwood ad is linked here.]

Themes common to both ads include: Strength and resolve overcoming adversity; A focus on pride of place – (Detroit for Eminem – generalized to America with Eastwood); Dramatic uplifting music; A popular, way cool, instantly recognizable celebrity hinted at throughout the ad, emerging at the end, then dramatically delivering the money quote directly to the camera.

They are practically the same ad.

The purpose of advertising is to sell a product. The purpose of this ad is to sell Chrysler cars. Advertising sells cars by creating an image and cachet that buyers find attractive and associate with the car. This ad succeeds in this endeavor without ever showing the car.

Chrysler had\has an image problem. Along with GM, Chrysler suffered a serious black eye with the American public. Cerberus – the private equity firm that bought Chrysler from Daimler Benz cut its losses by means of of a government bailout and a managed bankruptcy with heavy handed terms dictated by the Obama administration. At the end of the day, Chrysler was purchased by Italian car manufacturer Fiat, mostly because no one else would buy it.

All of this was considered rather unseemly and distasteful to American car buyers at the time, but that was all in the past way back two years ago. Now we have a resurgent automobile industry with Chrysler cars “Imported form Detroit” creating jobs in America and competing with foreign manufacturers. Right? Well… not quite:

These ads are great because they succeed in wrapping Chrysler and their cars in the image of a resurgent Detroit and project a message of resilient Americans fighting out of an economic downturn – all delivered by respected and well-liked celebrity personalities.

If there is a political message to found here, it has nothing to do with the advertisement itself. The ad is doing exactly what any good ad should do. In fact, it does more - Memeorandum is tracking reactions, people are writing columns about it, it is being posted on blogs and social networks. Chrysler is getting more than their money’s worth from this spot.

The political problem is with the underlying company. The problem is with the moral hazard unleashed when they were bailed out with taxpayer money. The problem is with the subsequent heavy handed politically motivated machinations orchestrated by the Obama administration in the bankruptcy proceedings. I would not want to buy a car from that company.

I’d rather buy a car from that other company. That Halftime in America, Clint Eminem, Imported from Ohio Illinois Canada Mexico Detroit company. You know the one I mean… Fiat.

UPDATE:
You had to know this was coming. The Parody is linked here.

^{x-posted from “The Dividist Papers“}

I know this may not be the most direct political cartoon, but definitely news worthy especially after all this exhausting election year. What made Sparky so remarkable aside from just managing a boy’s game, was he demonstrated exceptional leadership skills in managing difficult players or prima donnas during his tenure. He led the Big Red Machine of the Reds to a remarkable back to back World Series Championships with huge egos like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Ken Griffey Sr. to name a few. He came to Detroit and took a rag tag team and developed them into a world class baseball club…and I had the fortune to experience this during my childhood.

I just hope that we can have a few politicians that could exhibit the remarkable leadership, charm and energy that this great soul possessed. It seems today we have become bitter, entangled and stuck in our trenches refusing to look past our egos and convictions to embrace team work and a positive attitude to get things done.

Espn link

Normally sports fall under another category but this time I thought it was interesting how social media is changing the ways we see these figures in the media.  The question I posed will it change their behaviors?

News Link…

For those of you who don’t follow the World Cup…

I’m sure there are some baseball fans who visit this site, and if you collected baseball cards like I did…you’ll find this amazing and eventually “on-topic” for a politics site…

But there is an economic angle to this…

Topps needs to augment reality because baseball cards are struggling in the Internet age. Today’s collectors, most of whom are still boys, can just as easily and less expensively find the sports facts they want online.

While once a $1 billion business, the market for sports trading cards has shrunk to $200 million in yearly revenue today, according to information provided by Major League Baseball Properties in a recent lawsuit against a former card licensee. (The players’ association licenses the right to use players’ likenesses.) [...]

Michael Eisner, the former chief of Walt Disney, did too, and in 2007 his Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners bought Topps for $385 million. They hatched big plans to make trading cards relevant again.

Total Immersion, a French company, brought Topps the augmented reality technology. It has already been used in a theme park and for some auto design work. Using the technology, card collectors see a three-dimensional version of a player and can play elementary pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard.

Mr. Eisner said Topps expected to ship 10 million packs of Series 1 (12 cards for $2) and Topps Attax cards this year (5 for $1). Scott Kelnhofer, editor of Card Trade, an industry publication, says the Total Immersion technology could strike a chord with boys. “This is the boldest technology idea we’ve seen in sports cards so far. The key is not to have it be a novelty and then it’s on to the next one.

See, told you it would be on-topic.

It’s official.

Humans can fly.

I’m still catching my breath.

Barack Obama is doing a fine job preparing for his presidency, but one move stands above the rest in terms of its clarity and commonsense appeal. Obama is right to support a BCS playoff for college football.

Now, you might think I support Obama on this matter merely because I’m a Texan and Texas is getting screwed in the BCS this year. Not so. You hardly have to be a Texan to see the profound injustice being perpetrated by the fraud that is the collegiate football championship. Seriously, if we ran our elections like the BCS runs football, we would have had Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani facing off in the November election.

But let me move past the clear and unquestionable insanity of a system that considers a team that lost 45-35 on a neutral field superior to the team which beat it. I understand the complexity when you factor in Texas’ last-second loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock and Oklahoma’s at home victory over the same Tech team. Obviously, small minds can easily be confused by the situation. That explains the fallibility of the human polls. The computer polls, of course, fail merely because they are computers and are more concerned with bringing on a Terminator-like future than they are with accurately interpreting the results of college football games (and, yes, any computer that ranks Oklahoma over Texas is clearly seeking the annihilation of truth and justice).

There is only one solution. An eight team playoff. Don’t tell me it would be too hard to coordinate. Div. II and Div. III NCAA football manage such a system. And don’t whine about all those Bowls that will lose money. The lesser Bowls can still host contests between teams which fail to make the playoffs while the major Bowls can serve as playoff sites. It’s really not that hard. And such a system would allow Texas to prove, once again, its superiority over Oklahoma. On the field. Where questions of “who’s better” are best decided.

So, clearly, it’s time for a playoff system. Isn’t that change we can all believe in?

The ailing Citigroup is being fairly targeted for their spendthrift ways.

From NY Times:

In 2006, Citigroup signed a 20-year, $400 million contract to name the Mets’ new stadium in Queens Citi Field. As recently as last week, the troubled financial-services conglomerate said it had no intention of backing out of the deal for the new stadium — the replacement for Shea Stadium, which is being demolished.

Well now, with Citigroup getting a second multi-billion-dollar rescue from the federal government, two City Council members would like to see Uncle Sam get some credit.

The two councilman, Vincent M. Ignizio and James S. Oddo, both of Staten Island, called on Tuesday for the stadium to be renamed Citi/Taxpayer Field. The two men will soon be the only Republicans on the 51-member Council; the only other Republican, Anthony Como of Queens, was recently defeated in a special election.

My question…why not just “Taxpayer Field” since Citigroup wouldn’t exist anymore without us?

By the way, the Mets declined to comment about this when asked what they thought. Perhaps they like the idea? :-)

My cartoon was linked to post from the NYTimes

(Click on Bob McCarty) NYTIMES link

I really don’t know what to say to this. It’s wrong for so many reasons, not the least of which is the suggestion that shoes can help you jump a car (WTF?).

Yes, Kobe says “do not try this at home,” but come on people…what does Nike take us for? Behind every piece of advertising is a message and this one is about the shoe’s performance.

They even released this thing on Kobe Bryant’s own website, which should give you an indication that they want people to think it’s real.

And who knows, it very well might be, but either way it’s dumb and dangerous and Nike should take it down immediately.

UPDATE:
The consensus in the comments section seems to be that I’m dumb for embedding the video, and I think it’s fair criticism because this does get more people to watch it. However, the reason I did this is to show people how this video is grossly irresponsible. And yes, there’s another way to handle this, but I’m not really a big fan of blogs that link to YouTube so I have to leave their site in order to watch something. To me, that’s why things are embeddable.

Getting back to the main point, yes, I’m outraged that Nike is taking a clearly dangerous trick and using it to sell shoes. Let’s remember that jumping cars is not a sport, so Nike is selling a dare here, not just performance.

Moreover, marketing should never be responsible for one broken nose, or busted jaw or fractured skull. Not one. And yet I’m sure we all know it’s going to happen as a result. So while they may not be legally responsible when bad things happen to people who emulate this ad, from a marketing ethics point-of-view they’re guilty as hell.

Call this post unwarranted outrage if you want, but I’m sticking by it and I think the reasoning is pretty straightforward.

UPDATE:
DigitalPodcast shares similar sentiments…

The problem will come when the first stupid person decides to try it themselves to show off. The first broken neck, paralyzed or dead kid will make Kobe and Nike look incredibly irresponsible. I would not be surprised if they get sued and it becomes a big mess.

While I don’t want to sound like the grumpy parent that I am, I can’t help but point out that this is stupid and irresponsible behavior and the perhaps the dark side of social media marketing. Kobe has a huge following despite his problems off the court. Kobe’s jersey is the number one most popular jersey in the US and even in China. Kids who don’t know any better and adults who are stupid enough to try to emulate their heroes are going to see if they can do this too.

While a pair of Nike’s costs $130 bucks, a kid’s life priceless. Nike and Kobe should start thinking now about how they get themselves out of that mess. It’s coming soon.

I’m telling you…this could get ugly quick.

Heh…

In a move that’s sure to be seen as controversial, Hillary has contacted the NCAA Board of Directors to argue that Memphis is actually better qualified to be National Champion.

Ms. Clinton stated that Memphis, while losing the game, had actually shown more ability to act like a National Champion on Day One. She argued that Memphis had passed every test during the game, including scoring more points than Kansas for 38 minutes. For 38 minutes they had shown the experience necessary to be National Champion. “Just because some team comes along in the last minute and scores more points than the other guy doesn’t mean they’re necessarily able to be National Champion on Day One.”

You know, she has a point…

20 years to day they won in ’88.

Awesome.

And trust me, this isn’t one of those videos where you’ll think, “Wait, are they really booing?” Sure, you’ll hear some cheers, but the boo birds are overwhelming.

The times we live in…

Germany itself isn’t going to boycott the entire thing, but she won’t be showing up.

And she’s not the only one…

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games’ opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown’s determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

“The presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate,” Tusk said. “I do not intend to take part.”

Well done all around. China’s behavior is simply inexcusable.

But will Bush show up?