Chrysler’s Eminem ad is creating buzz. But is this the buzz Chrysler really wants?

Rather than introducing fresh images of a new era, the ad’s obsession with controversial Detroit icons like the fist sculpture and Diego Rivera mural have dredged up the old ghosts of UAW bailouts and Detroit entitlement. The ad has become a lightening rod for national pundits from Mark Steyn to Fox’s Greg Gutfeld to the Washington Examiner. It has divided conservative allies Steyn and local talk host Frank Beckmann on WJR-Radio. While Detroiters revel in the ad’s swagger, outsiders see a city of false bravado – an entitlement town that held up American taxpayers to rescue UAW jobs and gut bondholders in a bailout that has been hugely unpopular in public opinion polls.

There is no doubt that Em’s celebrity has brought viewers. But so have other Super Bowl auto ads.

Indeed, VW – like Chrysler trying to re-launch its brand to a similar, middle class “luxury” brand of buyer – produced an ad that has dwarfed Chrysler’s in buzz. As of this morning, the Darth Vader VW Passatt ad has received 21 million hits on You Tube. The Eminem Chrysler ad: 3.8 million.

The evidence would suggest that family images rather than fist-in-your-face attitude sells a family car. Still, vanilla-segment family cars usually don’t reach millions on You Tube. Credit Chrysler with that.

The proof is whether the suburban Detroit-based automaker (yes, even Chrysler doesn’t really believe in this City-of-Detroit-is-coming-back stuff) has the product to back up its attitude in the competitive U.S. marketplace. Is the Chrysler 200 a new era for Chrysler – or another Dodge Magnum station wagon?