This morning there seems to be a bit of buzz about this Super Bowl ad:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XxFYYP8040A
A couple of points worth remembering.
1) The 30-second spot cost GM, the parent company of Chevrolet, something in the range of $3.5 million — just for the air time, not the cost of filming the commercial, etc.
2) The good folks at LessGovernment.com calculate that the U.S. taxpayer would lose an additional $13 billion if the federal government sold its GM shares now.
The United States Treasury owns roughly 500 million shares of common stock in General Motors. (Source: U.S. Treasury) The Treasury would need to sell these shares at roughly $53 per share in order to “break even” on the investment. (Source: WSJ) Using Google Finance API, we multiply the current GM stock price by 500,065,254, and subtract that total from $26,503,458,462 (or, 500,065,254 x $53).
Our calculations estimate the loss taxpayers would suffer if UST sells its GM common stock shares at the current ticker price.
3) “A letter from Ford attorney Lynne M. Matuszak says that according to insurance industry data it is Ford, and not GM, that makes the safer pickup truck and she called on GM not to use the ad.”
4) As I saw on Twitter last night? “Hey, where’s Ed?” “Ed didn’t even make it to the Apocalypse. He bought a Chevy Volt that burst into flames.”