Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" ad
An article over at Ad Age brings up an angle on the whole auto industry bailout probably not considered much before. The fact that a yet-to-be-appointed “car czar” will have control over a multibillion dollar advertising budget for the big three. Under the guise of “oversight,” this would effectively “Create World’s Most Powerful Marketing Exec[utive].”
The draft rescue plan for Detroit sent to the White House by Congress yesterday calls for the appointment of a “car czar” who will oversee the Big Three automakers’ expenses over $25 million — which, by extension, would include media buys. Based on Advertising Age’s estimates of spending by General Motors Corp., Chrysler and Ford Motor Co., that would give the as-yet-unnamed car czar control over some $7.3 billion in marketing spending in the U.S. alone.
The most disturbing thoughts about this (particularly to those concerned with liberty) are provoked here:
The car czar would wield a budget more than double those of AT&T, Verizon, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson, which round out the nation’s top five marketing spenders, and give the car czar more clout with media and agencies than such famed names in marketing as Walmart Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Quinn and Anheuser-Busch VP-Marketing Dave Peacock.
…If the bailout goes through, agencies that work for the Big Three will essentially be toiling on a government account, with all the associated red tape and strictures that involves.
So there you have it. We should all be concerned about this for many reasons. As mentioned, the large ad budget that comes with a czar-controlled U.S. auto industry will allow a government bureaucrat to wield unbalanced and unchecked influence over not only who gets ad contracts, but what media outlets get ad money. The czar can simply refuse to give business to an advertising agency who works for a foreign competitor of the big three (or a “non-compliant” corporation), or refuse to pay money to show ads on outlets that they deem “unfriendly” to the administration or its mission. This will be an unequivocal disaster. We have already seen the lengths to which administrations (and pre-administrations) have gone to influence and/or silence media they do not like. What kind of power plays do you think are possible when the administration’s appointee controls a major source of media outlets’ ad revenue? Whatever it ends up being, it won’t be pretty.
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Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has been a vocal proponent for aid for domestic automakers, today made the following speech during debate on H.R. 7321, the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act: “I rise in support of the rule and the underlying bill. The underlying proposition is this: Should the United States have an auto manufacturing industry? That is really what we’re deciding here. Because if this rule and/or bill goes down, we are faced with an untenable condition which will lead to the collapse of our automotive making capacity and, according to some economic policy analysts, the elimination of over 3.3 million jobs across the economy; jobs that are affected directly and indirectly by the automotive industry. “I think it is important to step back and look at the context of this. Are we intending to stay a great nation, a world power, or are suddenly we retreating from the world stage? Because an America without an automobile industry is also going to be an America without a steel industry. We are already seeing our aerospace and our shipping industry affected. “It is time for us to have a national economic policy, which says that the maintenance of automotive, aerospace, steel and shipping is vital to our national security. Not just our economy, but our security. Sixty-seven years ago, when the U.S. was attacked it was those industries which enabled us to be able to defend ourselves. Now I am a person who stands for peace, but I also believe in preparedness. To me it is unthinkable that the U.S., which was able to mobilize its productive capacity, would suddenly throw it away. “We have to remember that our ability to make things is vital to being a great nation, and we have to remember that this is a moment that we should be able to rise to this occasion. It is a tragedy that we have to debate something that is a proposition about whether or not we remain a strong nation. You know we’re actually talking only about 2% of the amount of money that was given for the Wall Street bailout, which I spoke against and voted against. This is an altogether different proposition. We cannot totally reject industrial capitalism and remain a great nation. There are a lot of questions about finance capitalism which the $700 billion bailout brought out, but we have to have the ability to make things. And we can’t ask the autoworkers to work for nothing. “We have to have the ability to make things. We also have to have the ability to see automotive in the scheme of a broader industrial policy. Let’s remember who we are as a nation. With all of our troubles, trials and tribulations, this is still the greatest nation in the world. What keeps us there? Our ability to make things. To make cars, to make steel, to make planes, to create ships- that’s what help makes America great. Let’s not give that up. Let’s not let this moment pass and decide this is just a trivial matter of just $14-15 billion. This is a question of who we are as a nation. Let’s be strong. Let’s vote for this bill.â€
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