On review, I understand the sense of the line that caught my ear as dumb. It's that all the foreign carmakers are only imitating what is essentially American, the car. Detroit carmakers were the "inspiration" for "the rest of the world," says the great genius songwriter who took his inspiration from plenty of others who came before him.
At 0:49, Dylan lumbers forward saying, "Yeah, Detroit made cars. And cars made America." His upper lip looks strangely fake. There's no mustache. Did he shave off his mustache or is it plastered down with some sort of flesh-toned makeup paste that's impairing the mobility of his mouth? He wants his mustache, I think. He's had it a long time. But Chrysler doesn't want a mustache image.
Near the end, Bob says, "So let Germany brew your beer..." and I take a little offense, because beer is a big part of the manufacturing segment of the Wisconsin economy. But Bob's a Minnesotan, and there's some interstate rivalry, even as he's talking up Michigan. It's the state that shares your state's border that you tend to disrespect. Once there's another state buffering the proximity, you can get a little fuzzy and romantic.
Meade says, as I'm playing this: "The background tune is 'Things Have Changed.'" He recites a line of that song — which is playing only instrumentally — "I used to care but things have changed." The vocal track enters at the very end, with only the line "things have changed" — not "I used to care." You're supposed to care — a lot — about America. At least when you're buying a car. There are no cars in that song. There's some waiting for a train and walking on a bad road, and...
Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meetThat would be a change, but what you need, in this unchanged America, is a car, and Bob recommends a Chrysler.
Putting her in a wheelbarrow and wheeling her down the street
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78 comments:
Chrysler is Italian. GM could have a field day with that.
The moment I recognized Dylan's VO, my jaw dropped. Then I thought of Desolation Row: "They're selling postcards of the hanging."
I find the idea of Bob Dylan driving a car to be strangely unnerving.
It's like the time I was at Chanterelle and saw Bjork pay for her dinner with her credit card out of her wallet, instead of, you know, pixie dust or something.
I bet both of them poop, even. Bizarre.
The Super Bowl ads got the party's attention yesterday, but many looked away once it was not the Budweiser puppy & Clydesdale ad that all were waiting to see.
I said isn't that Bob Dylan, and nobody replied or even seemed to know who he is. Sad.
I'm laughing. Hard.
I can't take this seriously. It's like a parody.
But hey, I'm Gen X.
You mean a Fiat?
Fiat! It's more American than America!
Oh, Bob Dylan's done commercials before. He did Cadillac and Victoria's Secret. I don't see why anyone should be surprised. I'm sure he only does ones he likes and finds it amusing, including amusing to shock people whose "jaw dropped."
Does he need anymore money? He probably wants money, but I think he's more interested in getting some different kinds of publicity and keeping you even baffled more.
"I said isn't that Bob Dylan, and nobody replied or even seemed to know who he is. Sad."
Like a complete unknown.
Can't get too upset at the ad. Of course this ad isn't directed at me. They know their market- old people.
Bob Dylan can make any ads he wants. I don't see why he has to be special or different for any reason besides his work.
But ads like this are hilariously bad for anyone younger than 40. It's so overdone.
Bob's car has a bumper sticker that says "World's Greatest Grandpa." As I'm sure he understands, the slogan is literally true about him.
And it's not like he drove off in an AMC Pacer.
Traditionalguy was at a party where he had to ask "Oh my God, am I here all alone?"
Who knew the "Medal of Honor" Dylan received from Obama would have strings attached? The answer my friend...
I was at a wedding in 2012 and a longtime Chrysler fatcat and board member was trying to mock Romney for his so-called trickle down policy. I thought no wonder Chrysler tanked and had to be sold to Fiat when they had an Obama loving board member.
When Obama saw the Dylan commercial, he tweeted "at some point you have made enough money".
John Lynch said...
Can't get too upset at the ad. Of course this ad isn't directed at me. They know their market- old people.
Bob Dylan can make any ads he wants. I don't see why he has to be special or different for any reason besides his work
In the old hippie dippy days (as Phil would say), this would be called "selling out" to the man.
Bad Karma dude.
This almost sounds like parody except Dylan is serious. Who knew that Fiat (the Italian company that owns Chrysler) is more American than America itself?
When you think of Detroit, you don't think of great cars. You think of urban decline and failed dreams. Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang. Tail fins and Motown in a dying fall.
I bet both of them poop, even. Bizarre.
As long as they didn't avail themselves of the toilet in the host's master bedroom.
I guess there's nothing more American than using patriotism to try and get people to buy an Italian car. When you want your chutzpah, get it in America! We do it better than anyone else except maybe the French.
How is a Chrysler manufactured in the USA less Italian than a Honda manufactured in the USA is Japanese?
I've got a pen and I've got a phone. What could be more American than government by Fiat®?
I do not "need a Fiat in my life." I know it would be good for my moral fiber, but at my age I have enough challenges already.
Liked to see old Bob. He is looking pretty good actually. The ad was fine, love the background song, but was a bit baffled why he would swing with Chrysler which is a terrible product, notoriously horrible.
We proud Americans have been forced, twice, to invest in this crappy car company which rolls out junk decade after decade. I was pissed when I had to "invest" in it the first time, but twice? Really. How about we Americans recognizing crap and deciding not to buy it but being foiled over and over? Bob should not have been down with that.
"Fiat! It's more American than America!"
Yes---especially now that we are ruled through Government by Fiat.
I drove a Ford to work this morning. Yesterday at the hardware store I saw a Subaru with the bumperstick "union thug" on it.
Is there anything more "American" than adding complicated electronics into your vehicles becuase of greenhouse gas concerns mandated by the EPA and this would in turn devastate the United States domestic automobile domination?
Write this song Bob. Call it, "Accidental Obituary".
How is a Chrysler manufactured in the USA less Italian than a Honda manufactured in the USA is Japanese?
The parts for the Chrysler vehicle are fabricated in the United States for assembly in the United States.
Honda parts are still largely fabricated outside the United States and shipped to the US for assembly. Trade policy drives this for the Japanese.
Well, Illuminati, if this incessant need for taxes keeps up, we may become more Italian than Italians in creative tax avoidance.
it was Eastwood touting Detroit before, now it's Dylan. is it rolling, Bob?
Is there anything more "American" than adding complicated electronics into your vehicles becuase of greenhouse gas concerns mandated by the EPA and this would in turn devastate the United States domestic automobile domination?
Please explain why electronic emissions control equipment gives or gave Japanese or German car makers an advantage over Ford, GM, and Chrysler.
Is your statement a roundabout way of admitting that the foreign auto firms have or had technological superiority over the Deetroit 3?
Stick out your chest like you owna Nash, as the sergeant says.
Is your statement a roundabout way of admitting that the foreign auto firms have or had technological superiority over the Deetroit 3?
Yes.
"I think he's more interested in getting some different kinds of publicity and keeping you even baffled more."
When your hero does something inexplicably odd, find the genius in it. This is how we got Obama.
I like Minnesota...and Michigan. Iowa's ok.
Illinois, not so much.
So, we haul out a 60's icon, fill the commercial with iconography from the 40's, 50's, and 60's about the greatness of America and the cars we make.
What do I take away from this?
We USED to make great cars, back in the day.
Sell me on the models you make TODAY and convince me they're better. Don't expect me to buy your car "for old time's sake."
Maybe that's Detroits problem. They choose Clint & Dylan, Kia chooses Star Wars & nick Fury who's got a Matrix vibe going on?
GM could have a field day with that.
Only if they returned the billions they and the UAW took at gunpoint from bondholders and taxpayers.
Screw them all - GM, the UAW, and Chrysler.
If Americans make the best cars, then that's a reason to buy an American car. Patriotism has nothing to do with it.
And I don't look for the union label, either.
Sell me on the models you make TODAY and convince me they're better. Don't expect me to buy your car "for old time's sake."
They still make the best models in their class for SOME vehicle lines. Just look at the sales figures for...Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota and even that Illinois. The Ford F-Series is the top selling vehicle in all of these states except for Michigan. There it is the Ford Fusion.
The F-Series is the number one selling automobile in almost every state. American's have to haul things. Sometimes they have to haul their freedoms to another state like Scott Brown hauled his to New Hampshire.
No, Brennan,
In fact, cars made in USA by firms with headquarters elsewhere must have more "Made in U.S.A." content than those made by the Detroit 3 in order to qualify as domestic and avoid ruinous import tariffs.
Congress rules!
And screw Dylan too.
What a hypocrite, taking money from Obama's corporate cronies!
What's next? Old fart Dylan shilling MyRA accounts with a 1% return? Giving a fine old hippie rebel boost to Citibank retirement accounts (another Obama crony outfit), or maybe a smart ad campaign supporting the coming bailouts to insurance companies for Obama's biggest lie and fraud?
Is Bob Dylan really a Minnesotan? He lives in Malibu.
I was born in another state, but lived from age 2 to 25 in St Paul MN. Maybe that makes me a Minnesotan, but perhaps not. I'm 57 and have lived since 1998 in New Jersey.
I think to call oneself a Minnesotan involves adopting a certain chauvinistic attitude about it. I'm not a student of Bob Dylan, so I don't know if he's ever made any prideful declarations of his Minnesota heritage. And, unlike Prince, who is unambiguously Minnesotan, Dylan no longer has roots there.
I'm just asking. I don't know the answer.
(Was Les Paul a Wisconsonian? He went back to Kenosha for his high school reunions, but he spent most of his life living in other states. He died in Mahwah, NJ.)
@Seeing Red said:
Chrysler is Italian. GM could have a field day with that.
It is indeed ironic that the guy with the "Seeing Red" moniker doesn't know that GM sells more cars in China than it sell in the US.
and I believe that for automobile manufacturing purposes, Windsor, Canada and Puebla, Mexico are considered suburbs of Detroit, MI.
Kind of like the English Common Law for some purposes consider properties in the Canary Islands to be located in an old London cemetery.
Chrysler is a monument to crony capitalism. By the numbers:
The Godfather said...
If Americans make the best cars, then that's a reason to buy an American car. Patriotism has nothing to do with it.
====================
The Ruling Elites determined that profits could be maximized by offshoring manufacturing to the cheapest foreign labor pools.
American citizen consumers have been indoctrinated that their only duty is to buy the best and cheapest Chinastuff available...and somehow, the "unbridled Freedom and Genius of Amurrika" will find great jobs in lieu of the shuttered factories.
Conservative droolers blame all the job loss on "Those Unions" - ignoring that all the factories also closed in non-union Freedom States! with the "right to work". Where are all those great non-union jobs in Southern "freedom-loving" States or the ones set up at one time in Puerto Rico or Mexico? Gone to China as well.
Liberal droolers think all that lost manufacturing can be replaced by borrowing money from China or Korea and creating more Hero Cops and unionized Hero government regulators and services providers to the vast sea of the unemployed (now pushing 40% actual unemployment in the USA) as well as the flood of millions of jobless Mexicans whose factories closed and they cannot borrow money as readily as the Amurrikans.
Meanwhile, China is taking the money from 30% Chinese content in some US cars as well as Walmart dollars - and modernizing its military and laying the keels for 4 aircraft carriers
Some thoughts about the ad: It's aimed at the working class. The last scene is in pool hall with working class types who make America's cars as opposed to the elites who drink German beer wear Swiss watches.
Dylan has been in ads before, but this is the first that directly refers to him as an icon on par with James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, by showing fragments from his prime and his name. So, they didn't think he would be readily be recognized by a mass audience.
He face, in addition to the missing moustache, looked odd. Like he got a facelift or had Botox injections.
The only product that I wanted to buy after the ad was German beer. The one in the ad sure looked good.
@william @packerbronco
That was my take on it. We haven't made great cars in a long time, though Ford is at least not embarrassing anymore.
I saw this as a plea for jobs for Detroit, and because of the choice of imagery, specifically as a plea for jobs for black line workers.
But the main subtext was that America's identity disappeared last century and it needs to reivent itself. It had that same tinge of desperation as the blowhards that will say, " if we hadn't bailed you out in WW2, you'd be soaking German." Only if you are WW2 age do you have the right to say that.
Chrysler is Italian.
Oh, Bob Dylan's done commercials before. He did Cadillac and Victoria's Secret. I don't see why anyone should be surprised. I'm sure he only does ones he likes and finds it amusing, including amusing to shock people whose "jaw dropped.
The best thing about Dylan is that he's always been his own man — detached from the needs of others who want him to be so-and-so ... an anti-war activist, a reliable progressive, an elitist, or a certain type of political or social promise.
Robert Zimmerman just wanted to be a rock star.
shorter Althouse:
"That was a really stupid statement." "Bob Dylan said it? There is a deeper meaning and a larger Truth here."
Creepy.
I know that, gadfly.
And GM will be or is moving more to China every day.
BUT - where's the corporate HQ?
BTW - "I am no man."
Cedarford: Big ass Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. Big ass BMW plant in South Carolina. Big ass Kia plant in Alabama. All spanking new. Turning out product. Creating thousands of jobs in the plants, suppliers, builders, restaurants, hotels.
Near the end, Bob says, "So let Germany brew your beer..." and I take a little offense, because beer is a big part of the manufacturing segment of the Wisconsin economy.
I'd be 99.5% of the population of Madison would be caught dead drinking Miller.
Cedarford: Big ass Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga
Big vote coming up next week in Chattanooga deciding whether workers want to be represented by the UAW or not.
Shooting pool at the end was cheesy.
if we hadn't bailed you out in WW2, you'd be soaking German
I don't make fun of typos, especially since I am a lousy typist, and when one is extra funny it deserves congratulation. "Soaking German" is oddly evacative, and I do mean oddly. Heh.
Miller tastes of yeast.
evacative,
Evacative, as in ... GET OUT!?
One good typo deserves another.
Michael said...
Cedarford: Big ass Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. Big ass BMW plant in South Carolina. Big ass Kia plant in Alabama. All spanking new. Turning out product. Creating thousands of jobs in the plants, suppliers, builders, restaurants, hotels
=============
True, same with Honda in Ohio. But that all came from Congress and Reagan (Pre "outsource any US job for higher profits to a few"-Globalist era)
Reagan may have mouthed the words to free trade purists, may actually have believed that Amurrikans could make cheaper blue jeans and widgets than the Chinese or Bangladeshis...but DC at that point was still smart enough or at least not bought enough by the Ruling Elites they could see what would happen politically if all the cars were made in Japan and Germany. So they told the Germans and Japs their brands were welcome, as long as they built here and preserved American jobs.
YOur examples down South are the continuation of that implicit threat to foreign car manufacturers that for them, "Free Trade for Fredom Lovers" doesn't apply to them.
Unfortunately, the various other industries and small business light manufacturing jobs lost dwarf the "feel happy" side of BMW and Honda auto plants. The whole South textile industry was destroyed by subsequent Administrations along with light manufacturing and high tech jobs invented here but now done in Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, etc.
"Nor is the union content merely to let government and company officials silence opposing voices; they are perfectly willing to do it themselves the old-fashioned way.
Friday night, as some anti-union workers were handing out pamphlets, union organizers sent texts to their supporters ordering them to intercept and seize the material.
The first text read:
“Plz gather "ALL COPIES" of info @ gate today.”
The second clarified where the order had originated:
“The last msg was sent and approved by UAW. No one else”
Sure enough, union hacks attempted to confiscate and destroy the pamphlets, but fled when exposed.
Back-room deals, intimidation, deceit in pursuit of power. This is the UAW way, the Detroit way, and it’s coming to Chattanooga."
-Matt Patterson
One good typo deserves another.
Well, I am a bad typist, after all. And, yes, soaking German MUST BE evacative.
What the hell else could it be? :>)
Garage: The Chattanooga plant was on the verge of doubling in size when the NLRB flap over the Dreamliner was in the news. The Germans built in Mexico instead. There is zero chance that the plant in Tennessee will vote to unionize.
Hey Bob, I live in Milwaukee. Miller is an important employer and supporter of the community. So why don't you go fuck off.
Clint Eastwood and Bob Dylan walk into a bar.....
. There is zero chance that the plant in Tennessee will vote to unionize.
What makes you so sure?
The last thing I want to see in a Victoria Secret ad is Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan shilling for the Chrysler 200? The only ones salivating over that non-contender of a vehicle is Avis, National and Budget.
Garage. Working conditions are excellent and the pay is good. The Germans are more generous than the Japanese and the Japanese won such an election by 2 to 1 the last UAW try. For the most part southeners feel they can negotiate their own wages.
For the most part southeners feel they can negotiate their own wages.
Which is why southern states tend to be Right To Work states.
'Watch you parking meters!' When the commercial started out, 'What's more American than America?' I said 'Yugoslavia?' My bad.
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