Dear Leader dictates the operations of another company in his growing empire.
Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it’s expected to be in bankruptcy — the U.S. Treasury’s auto-industry task force gave it half that.
So if GM, which is wrestling with the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing itself, is wondering how much influence the task force will have over marketing, the answer is: plenty. However, transcripts from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, where the Chrysler case is being heard, proved for the first time that the task force at least understands that advertising is a necessary expense — even if it doesn’t think Chrysler needs $134 million for nine weeks of car ads.
……U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez then asked the witness: “Idle plants, why market?” referring to Chrysler’s shutdown of its factories for nine weeks. “The belief on all sides was that it was essential for Chrysler not to lose its brand image in the marketplace,” Mr. Manzo testified. “Advertising and marketing dollars are critical to make sure the right message is out there about Chrysler, what’s happening to Chrysler during this interim period and why Chrysler will be a brand going forward that is one that a consumer should continue to look at as one of their purchase opportunities.”
……Steven Landry, Chrysler exec VP-sales and marketing, said in a statement that the effort “gives us the opportunity to reinforce that it’s business as usual and demonstrate a bright future ahead for Chrysler.” That sentiment, however, struck a discordant note with some Ad Age readers after a story on the campaign was published on AdAge.com. “Business as usual? Isn’t that what got American car companies in trouble in the first place? Business as usual gave us cars no one wanted to buy, zero innovation, outdated labor practices and a lot of taxpayer money thrown in to keep a sinking ship from going under,” commented Jeff from Boston. “How about some unusual business — like a successful American car company?”
http://adage.com/article?article_id=136552.
Or better yet, just let failing companies liquidate and stop bailing them out with billions in taxpayer funds.
GM, like the other corporations now wholly or partly owned by the government, is now aware of the fact that their bailout came with another price tag—the government gets to run your operations as it sees fit.
Hugo Chavez is doing the same thing in Venezuela.
This has got to be the tenth time Obama has made a power grab and violated the Constitution. If Bush had done this, the Left would have had aneurisms.
Our money is being flushed down a socialist toilet creating a huge deficit, and then he demands tax increases to fix the disaster he created.
Welcome to ‘change’.