Saved From Certain Disaster Chrysler Drops $400K On Ads Thanking Taxpayers, Is This A Wise Use Of Money?

If you have been following the Detroit bailout over the last month or so, you can pretty easily see how out of touch the leaders of these organizations really are.

While these CEO's genuinely want to save their respective companies, I don't think any of them expected the backlash they received from both the public and government leaders.

It seems everyone had a beef with the Detroit 3 but the never knew it.

Imagine the shock:

1. You have go to Washington twice for a bailout that no one in their right mind wants to give you. 
2. You get blasted for taking expensive corporate jets to beg for money.
3. You suddenly discover most of the U.S. car buyers have written you off for irrelevant and poor quality products. Even though your sources tell you otherwise.
4. Your workforce is labeled as lazy.
5. You are scolded for not investing in the future and focusing on on short term profit only.
6. You are grilled for not saving for bad times.

Now after this whipping shed moment and in the final hour, against all odds, you are finally given a stay of execution.

Should you be grateful?  Well yes, and these leaders obviously were.

But should Chrysler really have spent $200,000 a pop on a series of full page ads in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, thanking the citizens of this fair land for "investing" in the troubled carmaker.

While it may be a nice gesture , it seems like that money could have better been spent on investing in their future, not thanking a public that could care less if you survive or not in the first place.

Have they really learned their lesson?

Bmw8ter - 12/30/2008 9:26:08 AM

+4 Boost

Gotta love the second person possessive on items 5 and 6.

sold2early - 12/30/2008 10:16:20 AM

+4 Boost

Your absolutely right! Theres' to many people here using inproper grammer and speling.

Agent009 - 12/30/2008 4:20:46 PM

0 Boost

Now if all I had to worry about was just a few typos then I would be a bit more concerned.

But they slipped through (and they probably will always do so) and have been corrected. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

neutral - 12/30/2008 11:57:59 AM

+2 Boost

Its all about perception, Americans are fickle, every company on the earth knows this. If Americans get a warm-fuzzy feeling about Chrysler, they may be enticed to buy (along with the fact that Chrysler is practically giving away cars).

LauderdaleDriver - 1/2/2009 2:45:49 PM

+1 Boost

Should Toyota have spend megabucks advertising the Tundra on the Orange Bowl when the factory is closed, and the workers laid off?

Micromanaging decisions seems a waste of time, especially when on this list, if BMW has a collective fart, it's genius, and if Ford were to produce perpetual motion it would be a gimmick.

BigShow50 - 12/30/2008 12:38:28 PM

0 Boost

LMAO!!!...see even with the bailout they have already received just made another "EXECUTIVE POOR DECISION"...this will just be another snowball effect of failure...WTF is new in the domestic world?!?!?!???

Agent009 - 12/30/2008 4:23:04 PM

-1 Boost

I guess it kills me to see them shocked that they aren't loved. For some reason they really thought the public would rally behind them after years of pawning off substandard products.

There are some great products out there by the Detroit 3, but relevance still is a major issue.

FJ62 - 12/30/2008 2:32:47 PM

0 Boost

No.

mercuryguy - 12/30/2008 3:25:37 PM

+2 Boost

Thanks for the bailout you fools! Now we can sell to the Chineese and become the bank we always wanted to be insted.

"I have a rusty bridge I'd like to sell you."

mercuryguy - 12/30/2008 3:26:35 PM

+1 Boost

Or should I say a Bridge with a freash coat of paint.

veyron1001 - 12/30/2008 4:23:51 PM

0 Boost

The problem is the tax payer never wanted to pay any bailout so its 400k down the tube.

LauderdaleDriver - 1/2/2009 2:51:18 PM

+1 Boost

Taxpayers would be happier to assume the health car and pension liabilities of all those retirees?

That's a lot more than a couple of billion, and is the end result of Chrysler's failure.

Denali - 12/31/2008 12:16:39 PM

+1 Boost

sound like it 2 me

dodgedart - 1/1/2009 5:23:57 PM

+1 Boost

Chrysler is still poorly managed. They are giving out performance bonuses equal to 10 times the average person's annual take home pay because someone said it's the right thing to do.
Give them more money, that should fix it.

Chrysler is still poorly managed. They are burning money on advertising the fact that they are burning tax payers money.
Give them more money, that should fix it.

Chrysler is still poorly managed. They are building poor quality cars that nobody wants.
Give them more money, that should fix it.

Chrysler is still poorly managed. They are burning money for heat.

This only proves that there is BIG money in management. America is a great place to be a manager of failing businesses.

LauderdaleDriver - 1/2/2009 2:47:25 PM

+1 Boost

And they are still making great minivans, Jeeps, and trucks.

which, people still are buying.