When is an ad not just an ad?  When it's in an election year.  

The Holywood legend Clint Eastwood has denied Republican Party claims that a TV commercial he appeared in for car giant Chrsyler amounted to propaganda for President Obama's re-election bid.  

The two minute advert was broadcast during coverage of Sunday night's Superbowl, the most watched TV event in US history

Both Chrysler, who made the ad, and Clint Eastwood, who stars in it, have denied any connection with Barrack Obama. But this is an age when the public is both more aware of, and perhaps more cynical about, what they watch.

Scotland Tonight discussed the issue wih historian Dr Phillips O'Brien; Gordon Young, the editor of the marketing and media magazine The Drum; Times Journalist and former Labour adviser Lorraine Davidson; and the political commentator and former SNP adviser Ewan Crawford.