So, two things stand out. First, when the voice-over says, "The road to greatness is the same for everyone -- no rest stops, no fast lanes, and definitely no short cuts," this image of a guy holding up a sign appears:
What looks like a Chinese character is probably supposed to be an asterisk. Not coincidentally, the image appears exactly when the voice-over emphasizes the phrase "no short cuts" and the music suddenly becomes ominous. So this has to be a judgmental jab at steroid cheaters like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, who apparently have foregone their chance at "greatness" by taking artificial "shortcuts." According to the supreme moral arbiter known as ... Chrysler. How this is relevant is beyond me.
The message is confirmed later in the commercial, in a far more obvious way. The voice-over continues: "It's a road paved with hardship ... and crafted by hard work. That is how true greatness is made." During that last phrase, this image scrolls by:
Very subtle. Roger Maris' home run record was "true greatness," achieved through "hardship" and "hard work." Cheating asterisks Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, on the other hand, just popped a bunch of short-cutting homer-pills to set their records. No hard work or greatness to be found there.
This tiresome moral lecture is bad enough. But what's truly maddening is the placement of Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers as the centerpiece of the sermon. The Tigers probably wouldn't even be in the ALCS this year if not for Jhonny Peralta's massive three-run home run in Game Four of the ALDS. Yet Peralta was named in the same Biogenesis drug scandal as the much-maligned Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez. He served a 50-game suspension for taking banned substances JUST THIS SUMMER. So yeah, as long as Cabrera and the Tigers are benefiting from Peralta's postseason production, it's hard to take this hypocritical moral indignation -- imported from Detroit! -- too seriously.
On top of that: Chrysler thought it would be a good idea to make a preachy car commercial with Miguel Cabrera as its star ... when Cabrera has a DUI and several other alcohol-related incidents on his record. Here are a few paragraphs from his Wikipedia page:
In the early morning of October 3, 2009, police were called to the Cabrera's home and took Cabrera in for questioning. Cabrera had come home at 6:00am, after a night of drinking at the nearby Townsend Hotel, and got in an argument with his wife. He was seen later that day at a game at Comerica Park, with scratches on his face. Cabrera told reporters that the scratches came from his dog and refused to discuss the matter further. It was later reported he had a blood alcohol level of .26 when tested, which is over three times Michigan's legal limit.
On January 21, 2010, it was reported that Cabrera spent three months in an alcohol abuse treatment center to help him recover from his addiction. He said at the time he had not drunk alcohol since he was taken into custody in October 2009, and that he would continue his treatment into spring training and the regular season.
Television station WXYZ had obtained a police report from an incident the preceding August, in which Cabrera was involved in a verbal altercation with diners at a restaurant inside the Townsend. Witnesses say Cabrera threatened to fight the group outside and indicated that he had a gun. Restaurant employees asked Cabrera to leave and police were called. There was no weapon in Cabrera's vehicle and Cabrera told team officials he did not own one. Cabrera then told team officials he had been dealing with personal issues and got upset, and the diners ended up dropping the matter.
Cabrera was arrested in Florida on suspicion for drunk driving and resisting arrest on February 16, 2011.
Chrysler pretentiously lecturing baseball players on taking "shortcuts" and questioning their "true greatness" is one thing. But doing so while championing a drunk driver as the legitimate standard of greatness, and then using his image to sell CARS, of all things? Talk about undermining your own moral high ground. And hey, speaking of "shortcuts" -- didn't Chrysler get a multi-billion dollar bailout from the federal government just, like, a few years ago? Was that not a "shortcut"?
But hold up, this is getting off track. Let's get back to Chrysler's message, because we cant afford to lose sight of what's really, truly important here: those baseball players who took those drugs that one time.
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