DETROIT -- Of all the special effects, stunts, and cars-rising-out-of-dry-ice introductions, the one that had attendees buzzing most was Chrysler's cattle drive. (Children, avert your eyes.) To introduce its 2009 Dodge Ram pickup truck (one version due in 2010 as a two-mode hybrid) at Detroit's North American International Auto Show, Chrysler ordered up 120 head of longhorn cattle from Oklahoma along with 14 cowboys and two cowgirls to keep order. Steel barricades separated the cattle and Dodge pickups from the hundreds of onlookers outside Cobo Hall who quickly became gawkers. Apparently bored by the speeches, some of the steers mounted other longhorns. (Or, as the Associated Press put it, "appeared to mount." Those who were there agreed: It was more than "appeared to.") "This is one show you're not going to forget," Chrysler president Jim Press ad-libbed. "Okay, look at the truck." That was early Sunday, one of the first new-vehicle rollouts. The rest of the press-and-analyst days turned into non-stop Brokeback Mountain references, in the belief that the 120 longhorns were all male.

If there are repercussions, Chrysler has the fall guy lined up. Head of corporate communications Jason Vine, who conceived the program, had already left Chrysler for unrelated reasons well before the auto show started. The downtown Detroit cattle drive will be a good test of the adage that any publicity is good if they spell your name right.