[Update] Chrysler Responds to Criticism Regarding TV Spot: We Did Not Pay a Single Penny for the Ad...

Chrysler and Lancia CEO Olivier Francois, released a statement saying that the company did not hire the Italian agency and that no one charged automaker a single penny for the creation of the TV Spot. "The only costs were actually spent here in the US, to two companies to coordinate and manage the trafficking of this film," Francois said.

To make matters worse, Chrysler's CEO said that he told the reported that this was a one-time execution with the agency, even before Halliday wrote the story.

Francois added that Chrysler has in fact hired Fallon of Minneapolis to be the brand's official ad agency.

Unfortunately, many news sites and blogs including Jalopnik ("Chrysler Hires Italian Agency To Make This Crappy Car Ad With Taxpayer Dollars") and BNET ("Chrysler Hires Italian Ad Agency With U.S. Bailout Cash to Create Non-Car Commercials") were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, taking everything that the author wrote for granted without even questioning the report...

Links: Adage - Autonews

Here's Chrysler's Official Response:

Olivier Francois, President and Chief Executive Officer - Chrysler Brand, Chrysler Group LLC and Lancia Brand, Fiat Group Automobiles, submitted the following letter to the editor to AdvertisingAge in response to this article:

Today we at Chrysler discovered that an act of social responsibility, running a film letting Americans know that the freedom of a Nobel laureate is currently being denied in Burma, was portrayed in Ad Age as a potential affront to taxpayers here. We'd like to set the record straight and have your readers draw their own conclusions.

First, this film was created by Lancia's Italian ad agency. For efficiencies, it was then re-worked for Chrysler. This was also not Chrysler "hiring" the agency, and in fact neither the agency nor the leadership of Nobel, nor the other Nobel Prize winners in the film charged us even a penny for it. The only costs were actually spent here in the US, to two companies to coordinate and manage the trafficking of this film.

Second, this was a one-time execution with the Italian agency, as we informed the reporter before she wrote the story.

In fact, we have hired Fallon of Minneapolis to be Chrysler Brand's official ad agency, and they are presently developing new commercials to start airing this year.

Hopefully we can enjoy the freedom of having your readers in a democratic society decide for themselves if they should be upset, or whether we instead exercised fiscal responsibility in producing this important film.