Chrysler Shoots Itself in Foot. People get fired.

Saw this article on Adage.com about how Chrysler, after taking bailout money from the US, is hiring an Italian ad agency to handle its work. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. Accounts move around all the time in advertising. The problem here is that because of the account move, I'd say at least 100 people, probably more, will be laid off of Chrysler's previous agency, BBDO. Not exactly the best publicity for a company trying to clean up its tarnished image after accepting bailout money. That whole giving-away-American-job-to-a-foreign-country-during-the-worst-recession-since-the-Great-Depression thing tends to not blow over well. Especially when you're already indebted to the government for billions. Not a move I would've made. But I'm just a lowly intern.

Would those people at BBDO get laid off if Chrysler moved the account from one American company to another? Probably. But the new American agency that picked up the account would all of a sudden be hiring. And while no "new" jobs would technically be created, there would be new opportunities for people who didn't have them before. And in a shitty economy where no one is hiring, that's a hell of a lot better than seeing the jobs getting shipped to Italy.

Now, I'm no fan of protectionism. Globalization is a-happenin' and there's nothing that is going to stop it. If another country can do what we do better, for less money, it's on us to compete to win back the industry. Thing about the ad biz, is that regardless of what fantastic work the foreign agency pitched, there's an American counterpart that could do the same thing. Maybe even better. There really is no need to outsource the work to another country. Boo on you Chrysler. Boo.