The short spot, rolled out on Fox TV on Thursday for Chrysler (bottom), is a tweaked version of a film created by Lancia (top) last month at the time of the World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Berlin.

Olivier Francois, the CEO of the Chrysler and Lancia brands as well as marketing chief for both Fiat Group and Chrysler Group has quickly hit back at the storm of controversy that the tribute film to Aung san Suu Kyi has caused in the U.S. since it aired late last week. The short spot, rolled out on Fox TV on Thursday, is a tweaked version of a film created by Lancia last month at the time of the World Summit of Nobel Laureates in Berlin. Lancia has used major social causes as a key marketing strategy in the last two years and this thrust has been extended to Chrysler with the adaption of this initiative.

However the advert has been widely criticised in the U.S. since it was rolled out, as it was seen in particular as spending U.S. government bailout money with Lancia's Italian advertising agency Armando Testa, at a time when Chrysler's outgoing agency, BBDO, is set to make hundreds of staff redundant in Detroit as the account hasn't been renewed.

The advert, which was always designed to provoke, has also been criticised for its lack of understanding of Chrysler's target market. AdvertisingAge quote Julie Roehm, a former Chrysler Group marketing chief, on Thursday as saying: "They have no idea who their customer is in the U.S. or have a clue how to connect with them."

However in a letter written to AdvertisingAge yesterday in response to its article on Thursday, Francois says: "Today we at Chrysler discovered that an act of social responsibility, running a film letting Americans know that the freedom of a Nobel laureate is currently being denied in Burma, was portrayed in Ad Age as a potential affront to taxpayers here. We’d like to set the record straight and have your readers draw their own conclusions.

"First, this film was created by Lancia’s Italian ad agency," continued Francois. "For efficiencies, it was then re-worked for Chrysler. This was also not Chrysler “hiring” the agency, and in fact neither the agency nor the leadership of Nobel, nor the other Nobel Prize winners in the film charged us even a penny for it. The only costs were actually spent here in the US, to two companies to coordinate and manage the trafficking of this film.

"Second, this was a one-time execution with the Italian agency, as we informed the reporter before she wrote the story. In fact, we have hired Fallon of Minneapolis to be Chrysler Brand’s official ad agency, and they are presently developing new commercials to start airing this year. Hopefully we can enjoy the freedom of having your readers in a democratic society decide for themselves if they should be upset, or whether we instead exercised fiscal responsibility in producing this important film," Francois concluded.