While watching the Jet Bengals game this Thanksgiving evening I saw a commercial spot from GM that touched me.
I did a quick search and found the ad on a Cars.com blog with the following commentary:
GM Thanks Public for Bailout in Holiday Ad
Just 16 months after emerging from bankruptcy, General Motors is again a publicly traded company and expects its first full year of profit since 2004. With the company in such good shape, the automaker will thank the public for their financial support in a 60-second ad that will air on Thanksgiving Day.
The ad illustrates failure through several pop culture references and cartoon images. There’s no voiceover, but toward the end of the ad, the words, “Thank you for helping us get back up” appear, followed by the GM logo.
The U.S. government invested $49.5 billion of taxpayer money into General Motors from 2008-2009, giving it 61% ownership of the automaker.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Treasury Department earned $11.7 billion from the sale of GM stock in the company’s IPO last Thursday.
Overall, U.S. government ownership in the automakers is now down to 33 percent from around 61 percent before the IPO, according to GM.
I’m a pretty loyal and proud Ford owner but I am thankful (and proud too) to see GM (and the economy in general) coming back and I think the message, both thanking Americans and the redemption & humility that comes with their resurrection is a good one especially this holiday season.
The songs lyrics that we don’t hear that are also apropos:
The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where
But I’m strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brotherSo on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We’ll get thereFor I know
He would not encumber me
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brotherIf I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one anotherIt’s a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we’re on the way to there
Why not shareAnd the load
Doesn’t weigh me down at all
He ain’t heavy he’s my brotherHe’s my brother
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
absolutely beautiful
The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.