Halftime in America: Chrysler Commercial Essay

The Chrysler commercial during the 2012 Super Bowl was extremely well done. It stars Clint Eastwood delivering a muscularly optimistic message about Detroit and its motorcar industry. Clint talks about America and how it has been hurting due to the poor economy and the unemployment rate. He does this through an interesting allegory of football and halftime. Chrysler does well targeting a genuinely broad audience of American auto consumers. This particular commercial uses a fear tactic through a lowly lit background and the explicit growl of Clint Eastwood to reach the target audience.Chrysler attempts to tug at the proverbial heart strings or emotions of the auto consumer by playing on the fears of people and their miss of faith in the American economy. Americans want to believe that America is great and will pick itself up from the dire straits it is in. This commercial does a uncorrupted job at trying to light that patriotic fire. This commercial was definitely well thought ou t. At a cost of $3. 5 million per 30 second time slot (halftime in America was 200 minutes long) Chrysler spared no expense.The 2012 Super bowl had 111 million viewers, a calculated move no doubt (Super Bowl Ads Cost Average Of $3. 5m, 2012). Detroit has been a long standing icon of American ingenuity and manufacturing Clint Eastwood is an American acting icon so it is no surprise that Chrysler put the two together to make a commercial. Chrysler, being rooted in America is reaching for brand recognition though perceived Americanism. It is an effectively persuasive tactic, though tasteless in my opinion.I say this for the simple fact that auto industry is no longer rim by borders it is a global industry where many American autos are made with parts manufactured overseas. For the third straight year, Toyota Camry, a product of lacquers largest automaker, is the most American car, as determined by Cars. coms formula. Honda Accord, the flagship of Japans second largest automaker, is s econd. (Report The Two Most American Cars be Japanese, 2011).I elieve that although the commercial was well thought out and constructed, Chrysler is rather tasteless in its tactics and disguises the tastelessness very well. In general, Americans are a proud and patriotic people playing on this is a clever way to sell cars. Using American icons to sell cars is clever. In short, Chrysler gets an A+ for imagination and creativity, but gets an overall failing grade for the hanky-panky thrown in the consumers face to disguise their real motives.