There used to be a time when successful car commercials were all about action and explosions and high speed chases. Then as health and safety departments put an stop to that, car makers turned to comedy to promote their products. Now though, mocking lifestyles, people, and each other seems to be the way to go.

We are seeing a lot of examples of this behavior these days, with the most recent ones being Jaguar’s parody of Mercedes chicken commercial, and Audi brazenly implying that people who buy Mercs or Bimmers are losers.

But now American car makers are starting a new trend: Patriotism. Chrysler started this with their “Imported from Detroit” campaign, and now Cadillac takes it simple and straight forward with this new spot for the ELR. Thing is, it’s kinda cheesy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc

The ELR is proving to be a bit of problem for Cadillac, as it is basically a Chevy Volt in a leather jacket which makes it costs twice as much. What’s more, it is even more expensive than the EV royalty, the Tesla Model S. That makes it a hard sell.

Cadillac hired actor Neal McDonough for this ad, which kind of reminds us of The Simpsons character Troy McClure; a Hollywood has-been that is reduced to making infomercials for dodgy producers of bad goods.