Critics on both the left and the right are bashing Chrysler’s Clint Eastwood-starring “Halftime in America” advertisement that appeared during last Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast.

 

Liberals were upset by the commercial because it used doctored footage of a union-oriented protest in Wisconsin, where critics of Governor Scott Walker spoke out against the plan to curtail the power of public employee unions.

 

Before including a brief segment of the demonstration outside the state capitol building, Chrysler’s ad people photoshopped some of the placards seen in the video footage so that the imagery would jive with the car company’s message of it’s-time-to-come-together-America. For example, one sign that said “No to the [anti-union] bill, Yes Children” was changed to read “Think of Our Children.”

 

Conservatives criticized Eastwood, an avowed deficit hawk, for being in the ad because the legendary actor had previously said he opposed the federal government’s bailout of the auto industry. They say his involvement in the commercial could be construed as an endorsement of the Obama administration’s decision to spend billions of dollars rescuing Chrysler.

 

For the record, Eastwood has contributed to the campaigns of both Republican and Democratic candidates, but supported John McCain during the 2008 presidential election.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Reading the Pictures: The Clint Eastwood Chrysler "Halftime in America" Controversy, and the Doctored Wisconsin Footage (by Michael Shaw, Huffington Post)

'Halftime in America': Clint Eastwood Hates Car Company Bailouts, but Loves Car Company Commercials (by Michael Comeau, Minyanville)

Were Politics Buried Inside Eastwood's 'Halftime' Commercial? (by Bryan Monroe, CNN)