Chrysler responds to criticism over Italian-made 300 spot.

We get pretty prickly here in the U.S. when we taxpayers bail out a major U.S. automaker, then find out they’re spending money with an Italian ad agency to create ads for the 300 instead of putting some bucks back in the home economy. Well, just when we all thought, “here goes another Chrysler blunder” a peek at the Carscoop blog reveals the automaker has set the record straight.

Olivier Francois, President and Chief Executive Officer - Chrysler Brand, Chrysler Group LLC and Lancia Brand, Fiat Group Automobiles, submitted a letter in response to the AdvertisingAge article, stating basically that the spot didn’t cost them a penny and they have, in fact, hired a U.S. shop to handle new creative and media executions.

I wonder what Lee Iacocca thinks about all this.