I know this is a little late, but was anyone moved by the Chrysler 'Imported from Detroit' ad?

[Taverner]

My mom's side is made of Flint Ex-Autoworkers, many who saw Flint and Detroit collapse in the 80s. Unfortunately, for many of them the take away was "Unions Bad." Remember, during the 80s GM and Ford were shipping jobs to Mexico faster than they could close up shop in the US. My relatives, all Union people, watched all of their hopes and dreams wash away, and not wanting to appear as 'victims' they voted more and more Republican. They blamed unions for all of the problems.

If you want to see this path of thinking play out from start to finish, watch "American Dream," a documentary that actually makes "Roger and Me" look like a walk in the park. The subject is a meat packing strike:

The film is centered on unionized meatpacking workers at Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota between 1985 and 1986. Hormel had cut the hourly wage from $10.69 to $8.25 and cut benefits by 30 percent despite posting a net profit of $30 million. The local union (P-9) opposed the cut, but the national union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, did not support them.--from Wikipedia

The movie in short? The meat packers lose, have to reapply for their own jobs back, get paid less, and the Hormel 'gold standard' for workers dies with the union.

Great movie to watch if you want to kill yourself.

Anyway, even though the Corporate heads of Chrysler do not give a rats ass about anything but their own short term profits, the idea of Detroit and Flint, my ancestral homelands, rising up and producing something, something made with union hands and when sells, in turn feeds, shelters and takes care of families - gave me a moment of pause.

I have some friends who work for Paws Inc, which is the firm behind Garfield the Cat. It's a great place to work, and Jim Davis himself is a nice guy. Up on the wall is their motto: If we take care of the cat, the cat takes care of us.

Anyway, here's that commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc

(X-post from Lounge because I posted in the wrong forum)

[Brickbat]

1. I FUCKING LOVED IT. I thought it was a gorgeous car, a slick ad, and I loved the attitude behind it.

Also, I'm a fan of Eminem.

[Taverner]

2. Eminem reminds me of Stone Temple Pilots

Once he found his own voice, instead of trying to copy others, he became good

[monmouth]

3. Loved it. Message was clear and Eminem was great. Best ad in ages...n/t

[bif]

4. Unfortunately it was done by a west coast ad agency

Chrysler yanked all the business from its long-time agency here in Detroit and took it out of town. Long story, but it really pisses me off.

[madokie]

5. I think its spot on

[democrat_patriot]

6. I saw U2 at the fox theater - it's gorgeous.

Detroit's a tough town.