Did White House Pressure Ford to Pull Anti-Bailout Ads?

For the only Detroit automaker that "didn't take the money" of the federal auto bailouts, Ford Motor Co. keeps paying a price for its comparative success and self-reliant turnaround.

As part of a campaign featuring "real people" explaining their decision to buy the Blue Oval, a guy named "Chris" says he "wasn't going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government," according the text of the ad, launched in early September.

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.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110927/OPINION03/109270322/Ford-pulls-its-ad-on-bailouts#ixzz1ZCCKunrs

 

I also have a Ford truck. A guy I know with a three year old Silverado told me he wished he would have gotten a Ford because he wanted to support Ford because they didn't take the bailout money. He bought his truck in the spring of 2008, before the market crashed.

For the Obama administration to tell Ford to pull their ads trumpeting the fact that they didn't take bailout money is flat out wrong. I guess he wants people to think that businesses must rely on government for success and he's miffed that Ford was able to survive on their own.

 

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