A General Motors Co. advertisement was "slightly" a distortion of the facts, Former White House automobile industry adviser Steve Rattner has said.

The Detroit News reported on Tuesday that before a speech in Chicago praising the government's efforts to revive the automobile industry, Rattner said GM "may have slightly elasticized the reality of things," in an ad in which GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre Jr. says the company had repaid the taxpayer funded bailouts it received.

GM has repaid $6.7 billion in loans, but the government still owns 61 percent of the company, representing an investment of $43 billion.

Rattner, referring to GM's progress since falling into bankruptcy last summer, said, "On balance, it is probably going as expected and better than we feared. (GM is) hitting or exceeding all the milestones."

In spite of the ads, which provoked complaints from conservative groups, Rattner called Whitacre a "hero."

He also said, "Thank God we have him."

Taxpayers would probably not see $10 billion of the $50 billion the government invested in GM, Rattner said.

He further added, "For about $10 billion, we avoided economic and human calamities." (With Inputs from Agencies)