If the vuvuzelas haven’t scared you away from watching the World Cup, you may have noticed a Chrysler commercial that salutes all things American, including, of course, the company’s cars. Just one problem: The car featured in the ad was made in Canada, using German technology and Italian funding.

The commercial initially aired during the U.S./U.K. match, and was clearly designed to play up America’s history of schooling the Brits on the battlefield. But, as Consumer Reports Cars points out, the featured car, the Dodge Challenger, doesn’t exactly channel the spirit of Lexington and Concord:

Chrysler chose the 2010 FIFA World Cup competition in South Africa to debut a new patriotic ad featuring George Washington driving back the British redcoats in a Dodge Challenger, and their apparent message was that America kicks butt.

The ad concludes with a voice-over saying, “There’s a couple of things that America got right: Cars and freedom.”

OK, fine. But Chrysler got one thing wrong. The flag-waving implication is that the Challenger is American. It is as American as a Mercedes-Benz-sourced LX platform car produced in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, by a company with 10-percent Canadian government and 20-percent Italian corporate ownership.

Of course, cars are made all over the world, and your new Toyota is likely to have been made in the U.S. and not Japan. But we somehow suspect that the international spirit embodied by the Challenger isn’t quite what Chrysler was hoping to convey with its flag-flying ad.

Red card: Chrysler FIFA World Cup ad misplaces Challenger factory [Consumer Reports Cars]

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