PR staffers at Audi of America and Chrysler should jump in their cars, put the pedal to the metal and race to their ad agencies to demand that the latest round of insulting broadcast advertising be killed immediately.

The offensive “Summer of Audi” ad strips children of the joy of the season. It shows images of kids happily wacking a piñata, playing baseball, eating ice cream and hosing each other with garden hoses. The action comes to an abrupt halt when a glamorous yuppie driving an Audi cruises by. Mouths are agape. The kids appear bewildered or somewhat crestfallen. Their fun apparently doesn’t measure up to the standards of the German automaker.

An announcer informs viewers that "summer used to belong to children, but now that the Summer of Audi event is here, they are going to have to learn to share. Take back summer with the exceptional values of the Summer of Audi event.” What a killjoy! Just as the Grinch stole Christmas, Audi wants to steal summertime fun from kids.

What are the kids supposed to do? Do they abandon friends to pester mom and dad about buying an Audi? Does Audi believe that self-centered Baby Boomers can regain memories of summers long past by buying one of its expensive cars? The only good feature of the ad: the driver didn’t run over any of the kids.

Chrysler earns the second “McCauley’s Bonehead Ad of the Month Award" for its “Let’s Refuel America” campaign in which it promises to subsidize pump costs for suckers who buy one of its many gas-guzzlers. Chrysler will pick up the tab for gas costing more than $2.99 a-gallon for the next three years. That's quite a crapshoot since gas may cost more than $10 a-gallon by 2011.

The ad painfully shows why Chrysler is the weakest member of Detroit’s Shrinking Three. The spot reminds viewers that desperate Chrysler does not have the compacts needed to compete against Japanese car companies. It also selfishly screams, “Who Cares About Global Warming?”

Four-dollar-plus gasoline triggered General Motors’ announcement today that it is unloading the Hummer albatross. Chrysler needs to junk its refueling America campaign, and speed up its alliance with Nissan to get cars to temporarily fill its product line-up gap.

“Let’s Retool Chrysler” is a better program than any gas giveaways.