“So Let Germany Brew Your Beer”

Did you catch that one?  Among the many good and not so good commercials during yesterday’s Super Bowl telecast was a rather odd one from Chrysler featuring Bob Dylan.

Dylan starts it off by asking, “Is there anything more American than America?” If that one stumps you, Bob follows it up with a series of cryptic platitudes leaving one really big head-scratcher:  Who’s doing the voice over? I saw Dylan last time he came to Missoula and his voice definitely isn’t that clear anymore.

To drive home the point there is nothing more American that building a Chrysler car in Detroit, Chrysler tells us it’s okay to let Germany brew our beer. Here’s the ad:

Is there anything more American than America?  Yeah, spending $12 million to air an ad convincing us there’s nothing more American than buying a car from a wholly owned subsidiary of an Italian car company.

I guess Chrysler hasn’t been getting the Brewers Association’s memos about the explosion of great beer being brewed in America. Largely by small companies actually owned by Americans. 
Truth be told, I’m not offended by the advertisement. The whole thing seemed odd and I highly doubt anyone at the ad agency set out to offend the craft beer industry.  
If anything, the fact Chrysler did not notice the line might anger the craft beer industry indicates an important concern: the Brewers Association and its fans have a long way to go in educating the general public.