Motor City Makeover? Parts Of Super Bowl Ad Touting Detroit 'Comeback' Filmed In LA
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — If you were one of the millions of viewers watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, you may recall a cinematic halftime commercial for Chrysler featuring director Clint Eastwood hailing an economic comeback for the city of Detroit.
There's only one problem: the ad was shot at least in part here in the Southland — and none of it in the Motor City.
The ad, entitled "Halftime In America", starts out featuring the Oscar-winning filmmaker walking through a darkened tunnel located in the Los Angeles Coliseum, a Chrysler spokeswoman told the Weekly Standard.
"Yes, part of it was filmed in New Orleans . . . and some was filmed in various parts such as Los Angeles," spokeswoman Dianna Gutierrez said.
While the commercial — which has garnered over 4 million views on YouTube — focuses largely on Detroit "fighting again" after the 2008 recession and subsequent $15 billion government bailouts for Chrysler, General Motors and Ford, some critics have argued that the ad was a subtle political message in support of the Obama administration.
Producing such a partisan message would mark a dramatic shift for Eastwood after he told the Los Angeles Times in 2007 that he opposed the taxpayer-funded bailouts of private companies like Chrysler.
"We shouldn't be bailing out the banks and car companies," Eastwood said at the time. "If a CEO can't figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn't be the CEO."
Eastwood has denied that the Super Bowl ad was made in support of any political party in Washington.
