Chrysler kicks itself in the nuts with wasteful “Thank You” full-page ad campaign

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So you’ve just got US$4 billion in bailout money. What do you do? Do you immediately get to trying to turn your company around, cut costs, boost sales, etc? Well no. Not if you’re Bob Nardelli and the bunch of monkeys working under him.

One of their first moves are to blow several hundreds of thousands, perhaps even up to a million US dollars on full-page ads in mainstream American newspapers, including USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. A full page ad in the WSJ can cost between $206,000 to $264,000 while a similiar ad in the USA Today costs between $112,000 to $217,000. Of course, this money probably has already been paid for in advance via a bulk buy for the whole year.

But still, even if the taxpayer treasure trove raiders wanted to thank the public for the money (which apparently more than half the Americans did not agree to), what they could have done is write a letter to the editor’s mailbox or something, I’m sure the papers would have got it published considering how Chrysler probably regularly takes up ads for its cars. Or maybe call a press conference. Haven’t they learned by now how to get coverage through press management, or is throwing random amounts of money at problems their lazy way of solving things? Their PR people should have seen these public sentiments from miles away!

Here are some of the angry repercussions found written in Chrysler’s blog:

Mr Nardelli, Fire your PR and advertising teams and execs immediately. We the People did not want to see any more ads and money wasted on ads, be it from Chrysler, et al, or from your own pocket. You should have put up a website thanking the people and just submitted it to various online news aggregators for free. Once again, I am pained to see you are demonstrating a lack of common sense and fiscal responsibility.

First of all, do you need to spend your precious dollars on expensive newspaper space? Second of all, it’s hard to say “America” is really responsible for granting the bridge loans. One survey said that 61% of Americans were against it.

Your resignation and the resignations of senior executives who have mismanaged the business would have been much more appropriate.

Dear Mr. Nardelli and the “over one million people who depend on Chrysler” – You’ve got some nerve to thank us for our forced “investment” when we didn’t want it to happen in the first place. Isn’t forced or coerced investment akin to robbery?

Mr. Home Depot has now shown that he can take extravagance to another extreme high. Why in the world are you thanking people that didn’t want this. You need to spend the money you spent on this ad to bailout one of your line workers whose house is about to go into default.

I’m speechless. And I’m saddened that a corporate management team is so inept at understanding public opinion. Some advice: issue a press release stating that you regret that you made a mistake using taxpayers’ money in this manner.

This ad just goes to show that you and your company has not learned anything, and like the rest of the US I am upset. This opportunity was squandered, by you and your incompetance. For the sake of my tax dollars I hope you succeed with a restructure like the late 70s early 80s when you received your first bail-out. However, with the poor decisions of this ad I forsee a bad investment on the horizon by the US Government.

Obviously nothing has changed. Chrysler is still making stupid decisions by wasting its stolen taxpayer money on useless ads. I will never, ever even consider buying a Chrysler.

What a great way to spend the taxpayer money!!! Spend hundreds of thousands if not a million to put full page ads in news papers all over the country. The NYT add alone cost over $200,000!!! I will never buy a Chrysler vehicle!! You guys suck!!

Way to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on a useless ad campaign that will surely only worsen your public image. We weren’t buying your cars before because they are all gas guzzling, unreliable, uninteresting cars that look like they were styled by the coleman plastic cooler division, inside and out. So then you steal our money through the government so you can waste more of it on useless ads, and you have the audacity to remind us all about it. Go to hell Chrysler.

Sharp words, but I bet all those billions of dollars are a quick cure for the pain. What a way to end 2008! Happy New Year people!

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