That's what some of America is about, evidently. Because Ford pulled the ad after individuals inside the White House questioned whether the copy was publicly denigrating the controversial bailout policy CEO Alan Mulally repeatedly supported in the dark days of late 2008, in early '09 and again when the ad flap arose. And more.
With President Barack Obama tuning his re-election campaign amid dismal economic conditions and simmering antipathy toward his stimulus spending and associated bailouts, the Ford ad carried the makings of a political liability when Team Obama can least afford yet another one. Can't have that.
The ad, pulled in response to White House questions (and, presumably, carping from rival GM), threatened to rekindle the negative (if accurate) association just when the president wants credit for their positive results (GM and Chrysler are moving forward, making money and selling vehicles) and to distance himself from any public downside of his decision.
In other words, where presidential politics and automotive marketing collide — clean, green, politically correct vehicles not included — the president wins and the automaker loses because the benefit of the battle isn't worth the cost of waging it.
For those that wish to see the add in it's entirety, MediaIte has the original Fox News report which includes the showing of the ad, in full. (Just in case the second uploaded YouTube video mysteriously disappears.)
[Update] Damage control?
Michelle Malkin points out that although the original video was removed by user over at YouTube, another took it's place a week later, here. She also has a video of a YouTube response from Chris (the man in the original video), so go see it.
More: A reader on Twitter points to Ford’s response to him on Facebook in which the company claims the ad campaign is still running:
Ford Motor Company Jeff we were not coerced into pulling the ad down. The campaign continues to run. We took the ad out of rotation after 4 weeks which is consistent with the typical lifecycle for the campaign.
There were conflicting reports that the ad had been yanked from YouTube. It appears that the ad is still there, though.
Someone’s in a panic over at Ford’s social media department, for sure. The original YouTube ad uploaded weeks ago on the site is not available. See the embed of the original ad from September 16 here at hotair: “Video has been removed by the user.”
The one now appearing on the site was re-uploaded on September 23.
I think diggrbiii has this right: “Ford pulls TV ad, claims it was just normal scheduling, keeps YouTube version up for plausible deniability.”
Others discussing this, via Memeorandum:
MLive.com, Michelle Malkin, National Review, Ben Smith's Blog, LaborUnionReport.com, Hot Air, RedState, Weasel Zippers, Weekly Standard, theblogprof, JammieWearingFool and Cold Fury .
