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Chrysler's Ad About Detroit Comeback Filmed In... New Orleans?

6 2,132 views Feb 6, 2012

If you watched yesterday’s Super Bowl, perhaps the most talked-about commercial was the “Halftime In America” ad run by Chrysler and starring Clint Eastwood. Against a gritty urban backdrop and scenes of middle-class America, Eastwood assured us things would get better.

Detroit, he said, almost lost everything, but it's pulled together and is once again the Motor City. Detroit, he emphasized, is showing us it can be done, and what’s true about Detroit is true about the rest of the country.

It was an inspirational ad, one that hit very close to home for many of us. Sadly, however, the ad wasn’t filmed in Detroit.

As The Weekly Standard explains, the spot was filmed in New Orleans and Los Angeles, with stock footage of the Motor City inserted during production.

It’s not the first bait and switch that Chrysler has done with its advertising, either. The Jennifer Lopez ad for the Fiat 500 wasn’t filmed in the ‘hood, casting doubt on her "Jenny from the Block" credentials years after anyone really cared about the veracity of such claims.

There are some who say that the “Halftime In America” ad is political, a belated thank-you card to both the past and current administration for saving the automotive industry in America. Frankly, we don’t care if it is or not, since its message still resonates: stand united, and we can get through just about anything.

That much is true in Detroit, New Orleans or Los Angeles.


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Comments (6)

  1. fb_100000241103493 avatar Bruce A Johnson Posted: 2/6/2012 8:28pm PST

    There is a shot in the commercial from the Madison, WI protests of last winter as well, although all the signs in the spot have been Photoshopped into meaningless gibberish.
     
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  2. fr8bil avatar fr8bil Posted: 2/7/2012 3:47pm PST

    What an idiotic ad. Supposed to be all about America right? And who sponsors the ad ? None other than Chrysler, owned 58.2% by Italian FIAT ! So Mr. Eastwood, where do those Chrysler profits go ? Did you even think about that ?
     
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  3. Motown1 avatar Motown1 Posted: 2/7/2012 4:20pm PST

    Your missing the point - they still build the cars in the USA and employ American and Canadians. Who cares if it's controlled by Fiat - it's better than not existing at all - and it seems to me that the Italians have far more sympathy for what makes Chrysler great than some previous German and American owners! See my point - punk, well do you?
     
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  4. etdweasel avatar Charles Brand Posted: 2/7/2012 6:33pm PST

    Motown1 is right. I'm sick of folks whining about foreign ownership. It's a world market. Ask the Buick division of General Motors.

    And as for the filming in New Orleans & L.A. - it's "Halftime In America" - New Orleans is in America. There's a rumor that even Los Angeles is part of this country...lighten up, guys!
     
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  5. Suburban avatar Suburban Posted: 2/7/2012 7:04pm PST

    Here in Australia there are many US brands for sale, pretty much all made in China. Chrysler, Jeep & Dodge vehicles are among the few exceptions. Why are American's so bothered by a minor technicality of where this advert was filmed when the US is sending so much of it's manufacturing (and wealth) offshore?
     
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  6. fb_535139668 avatar Bill Cummings Posted: 10/9/2012 5:06pm PDT

    Between the writer of this article and user fr8bil, I am getting very frustrated, as a Canadian I thought this ad was legendary, really you care where it was filmed? were any claims made that it was filmed in Detroit???it's about the American car manufacturers and the American economy, Motor City is the icon for that, I mean really? this is a bate and switch as you called it? I think you should bate and switch your day job, you obviously can not write without an unbiased outlook, you must be a hardcore Yugo owner or something. As for user fR8bil, they say that 1% of the American population are extreme idiots, I was just wondering why you want to advertise it so publicly.
     
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