This little piece deals with a subject well outside my usual ken, but I just couldn't resist commenting on a stunning piece either of corporate stupidity or craven capitulation, or both. I refer, of course, to the Audi commercial run during the LI Super Bowl. You can view it here if you missed it. Try not to vomit.
From what I am reading, Audi, along with some of the usual prog echo chamber, is praising itself on the brilliance of this advert, and its message of "female empowerment" and "equal pay for equal work."All very interesting from a company with no females among its key chief executives, and which brags about its sales in the Arab world.
The commercial is narrated by a clearly Beta male worrying about what he will tell his skilled and talented daughter about her "worth." He gravely intones his worry that he will have to tell her that her grandma is worth less than her grandpa, that her mom is worth less than her dad. All this, of course, while his daughter demonstrates amazing driving skills in a soap box derby race, putting mean-looking fat boys to shame. Then as the proud dad and, of course, his victorious daughter walk to their mega-dollar Audi luxury car, he says maybe he will tell her something else . . . no sign of a mom because I guess she's off protecting the human rights of Palestinians or helping Audi cheat on smog tests.
In case, just in case, you didn't get the point about how pro-womyn Audi has become, the ad ends with a few lines about Audi's commitment to equal pay for equal work, and "Progress is for Everyone." Get the word, "progress." Sledgehammer.
There is so much deplorable and idiotic about this ad, that I can't get into all of it. First, of course, equal pay for equal work has long been the law of the land in the USA--maybe not in Germany or in Saudi Arabia or some other major markets, but here, yes. Second, I have had enough male bashing. I am tired of this constant effort to make men out as villains, while women, if given the chance, are just as bad ass as men. Enough already. It seems every TV show and movie has the same theme; it has penetrated into commercials, and now even commercials run during the Super Bowl--might we wonder how many "bad ass" women could play in a Super Bowl?
My suggestion for the "progressive" dolts at Audi is for them to run their silly ad in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive, or some other bastion of Shariah law and see how it plays. Perhaps, even better, even more indicative of the strong "progressive" bent of this firm, which used slave labor during WWII, Audi should refuse to sell cars in the Muslim world until that world lives up to Audi's commitment to women--as long as they don't hold key positions on Audi's board of directors, that is . . . no sense getting too radical.
What is important is not what you are and do, but what you SAY you are and say that you do. Audi knows all too well that virtue signalling progressives are far more interested in appearance than in substance, and too lazy to check any facts; and they exploited to merciless effect with the galactic fraud in the emissions tests. And can you blame them; they know they are stripping cash from cretins, so why not retain an effective and profitable strategy while they can.
ReplyDeleteNo Audi in my future.
ReplyDeleteDiplomad, good to see you "over there".
ReplyDeleteI have an Audi. That's the last $65,000 they get from me.
ReplyDeleteI had one which leaked oil all over the garage floor. Went back several times to the dealers until finally they rebuilt the gearbox with a new she'll. Still leaked.
ReplyDeleteQuite apart from the pointless feminism, there was also the really annoying "the peasants are revolting" thing with the rich girl embarrassing the po' white trash.
ReplyDeleteI got the impression - having grown up working-class in the Ozarks myself - that even if I *could* afford one of Audi's overpriced autobahn skateboards, they wouldn't be willing to sell one to me because I'm just not good enough to be a customer of theirs.
Well, fine. I've got a Hyundai budget, and so I drive an Elantra. If I could afford an Audi . . . I'd probably still go ahead and buy a new Elantra and save about fifty grand, even if I sprang for leather seats. And I'd have a much more reliable car than the Audi, to boot.
--Wes S.
Right on all counts AND Hyndai had the best Superbowl commercial by far. (Troops with loved ones)
DeleteThis kind of message hits a nerve for a lot of women and girls. It doesn't matter if it's true it fits their beliefs so it is a message that is accepted and rewarded. Audi will indeed sell cars with this. And most importantly it is a PC message so it will get no pushback except it conservative blogs. Had this message been about the unfair and unequal treatment white males get from colleges the pushback would have gone through the roof.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression from Audi’s exterior design that their concept is all about downplaying the look of their cars, except for the R8. The Audi target market is of course the successful progressive. The last thing a progressive wants to been seen driving, is a symbol of plutocracy. Even though Audi sedans cost close to 100K for the S8 version, they don’t look it from the outside. This allows the progressive to enjoy the fruits of their labor as a NGO executive without showing off, and risking vandalism from their fellow progressives.
ReplyDeleteThe Audi commercial was indeed targeted right to their customer base.
This form of hand-feeding garbage to people too stupid and too lazy to move beyond being someone's sucker has been going on for so long that we've come to see it as being par for the course. When will it finally dawn on these chumps that if there were any truth to any of this that a man could never get a job because it is apparently more profitable to hire women.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
DeleteAnd I challenge any girls who believe women get paid less to do either start their own businesses (which would not depend on government money to survive, therefore avoiding bureaugamy), or get paid entirely on commission.
Prove your "worth." (I also object to that term)
I have often made the following argument. If women will do the same quality and quantity of work in the same period of time as a man, then why would any profit maximizing company ever hire a man to do anything when it can get an immediate 23% discount on total compensation? I would expect companies to be vastly majority female and government vastly majority male. This bogus number comes from total annual earnings regardless of hours worked or jobs. Compare the total salary of skyscraper iron workers (predominantly male) to retail clerks (predominantly female). The iron males will have higher earnings but this proves absolutely nothing. The imbeciles usually move on to talk with someone else...
DeleteI am one of many thousands who participate in a well-known polling firm's surveys. A curious and unchanging question for any political surveys is about daughters. Not children, or sons, but exclusively daughters. Audi's ad was backward, snobbish, behind the times, and out of touch with the real world in which "daughters" - even very wealthy ones - live.
ReplyDeleteKia, on the other hand, made an ad to appeal to a similar audience that also was endearing to us - we laughed out loud. Kia reached out to the liberal woman who lives in the real world, and they didn't have to put anyone down (not even men) to make their point.
The KIA ad was the best at halftime. I rarely watch them but it caught my eye. The Hyundai ad was after the game, I think.
DeleteYou are right about that! I didn't see the Hyundai ad until today. Whoa. It was wonderful!
DeleteThere's a really good analysis of this commercial here.
ReplyDeleteHow did you insert a hyperlink as "here" in your comment? Help us all out ...
DeleteGeorge, it's standard HTML formatting for a hyperlink ...
DeleteType something like the following only using angle brackets <> in place of square brackets [].
[a href="http://www.thediplomad.com/"]The Diplomad[/a]
and < and > to encode those angle brackets. <a href="http://www.thediplomad.com/">The Diplomad<a>
Deleteand & to encode the &!
- reader #1482
Since women control the majority (and growing) of U.S. wealth, perhaps we need an "equal wealth" law here? Just sayin' ...
ReplyDeleteIt's been a few decades, but every time, when driving in the German Autobahn, if there was someone driving like an a**hole, he was in an Audi. Don't know why.
ReplyDelete'Cause his BMW was in the shop, waiting for blinker fluid...
DeleteA - *holes
DeleteU - Usually
D - Drive
I - It
To paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson, an Audi driver is a c*ck with 4 rings.
DeleteI draw to your attention, Mr. Anselem and fellow visitors, this well-worth reading argument that the ad is about class, not gender, in the manner to which "Anonymous" referred yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI was never going to buy an Audi; now I never will.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to this girl? She was all over the place back in the '80s. She improvised, overcame.
ReplyDeleteI love Holly Hunter in her role in Broadcast News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ-yYcUmWSA&ab_channel=videobiker
Fauxcahantas Warren just got herself banned from further debate over Jeff Sessions nomination after she violated Senate Rules about disparaging remarks towards another member on the Floor.
ReplyDeleteI figured it was bound to happen with that many lunatics in 1 room...but my money was on Al Frankin losing his cool.
On the bright side this should unleash another round of Snowflake butthurt syndrome along with the Triggering of annoying feminist. Time to make more popcorn.
The Audi ad was really meant to play during the Hillary presidency. Audi bet on the wrong horse and with long production lead times had to go with what they had. The takedown of the ad at the link provided by explummer is very well done.
ReplyDeleteAs to the cars, I've owned 3, the newest being 13 years old @ 160k miles. Between the 3, my family has racked up 450k miles. Sold the oldest at 180k miles to someone who had to have a manual transmission. Like most krautwagens, you cannot postpone maintenance and that maintenance is expensive. Would not buy another because they now have too many 'features', all of which add many branches to the fault tree.
Good point... They were pandering to the'brave' voters who elected Hillary. But two months is time enough to do a whole lot of editing. I guess they figured there was enough obsequious guilt-flattery of privileged progressives to keep the chauvinism theme.
DeleteCompanies have to sell stuff, and if people want to be lied to about their guilt and superiority in order to feel the need to purchase this car... that's what we will get.
The Hillary voters have not yet given up that some miracle will reverse the election. The latest version is a military coup. Of course, these people can't even pronounce corpsman, let alone know one.
DeleteIt's interesting, but I am really seeing a lot of women commenters on conservative blogs that are turned off by the "atta girl" stuff. I'm even seeing women echo me in saying that maybe women shouldn't have the vote. Maybe it was the pussy hat march that disgusted a lot of folks, or maybe the culture is making a change in the other direction.
ReplyDeleteI reacted viscerally to that commercial. I was really hacked off. But I kept my mouth shut--my wife doesn't like me to get on my soap box. Of course, the Today Show the next morning was calling it transformative or some such crap. I quick trip to the internet made me feel better. The silliness of this overblown tripe was not lost on many commentators.
ReplyDeleteIn rural America girls often hunt with their fathers. We had a high school girl tell us she wished she could hunt the local mountain lion, to add to her deer trophies.
ReplyDeleteThe boys on the other hand often take their dogs out to hunt wild hogs, using knives to kill them while the dogs hold them.
Rural America is not Audi's target audience, of course. I'm just drawing the contrast and thinking about the planet Audi lives on.
Here's a question about the privilege that this family shows - how did they get her car to the starting line? Not in that Audi, that's for sure. Who did they hire to haul it for them?
ReplyDelete