It's hard to go past the chutzpah of General Motors' latest ad, posted on YouTube and Facebook, shortly after it filed for bankruptcy. You can watch it courtesy of AdvertisingAge.

With images of wind turbines, public transport and butterflies, GM proclaims it is a new beginning. "the only chapter we are focused on is chapter one," the company says.

Given that some of GM's woes came from its refusal to make cleaner cars and car parts, the environmental imagery is hard to take. What's more, the ad makes it sound so simple when in fact this is going to be a long, difficult and complicated process. Sorting out GM will make Chrysler look like a picnic. The company will have to jettison several major brands, 14 factories, 47,000 workers worldwide, and 40 per cent of its US dealer network. That's a complex process, slashing its operating costs so that GM's break even point will be lowered by 40%. That's to ensure it can be profitable when overall US industry sales reach 10 million vehicles per year. No mean feat given US industry sales are now running at just over 9 million.

The appalling part about this ad is that the company is making out that it's all so simple. It's anything but. Furthermore, it fails to acknowledge how badly GM management screwed up and destroyed what was once the engine room of US industrial power.