The best post I’ve read in a long time is this one at The Truth About Cars (hat tip: Instapundit). It’s about Audi’s Superbowl commercial for this year.
Here’s my question. Will this ad cause Audi’s sales to go up or down?
The best post I’ve read in a long time is this one at The Truth About Cars (hat tip: Instapundit). It’s about Audi’s Superbowl commercial for this year.
Here’s my question. Will this ad cause Audi’s sales to go up or down?
Wow, that was brilliant.
Thanks Dave, you nailed it. I think we’ve all seen so many ads that we don’t think them through. Are you or were you in that game?
No, but I grew up surrounded by them. Most of my dad’s friends who weren’t journalists, politicians, or lawyers were in advertising. Additionally, one of my mom’s closest friends was a woman who ran her own advertising agency.
Did your dad happen to know the “inventor” of the “Merrill Lynch” bull, and other iconic ad campaigns? His first name was Charlie, and that’s all I’ll say.
Nah, those are New York guys. My dad’s friends worked for Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson.
Oh, for God’s sake. If this was a parody of male privilege it would be a fine piece, but as analysis?
The thinking is that Audi’s agency sat down and said, “Ya know how we should sell cars to upper middle class dudes? Show a daughter doing something cool and fun! Because the first thing men think when they’re buying a car is, I wonder if my daughter will like it?”
Certainly they could not possibly be thinking, “Ya know how we should sell cars to upper middle class women? Show an idealized version of their youth, complete with idealized father. Flatter her. Make it seem she was ahead of her time, even back in the 80’s. She’s gonna get ahead on brains, not brawn.”
Duh.
The Spielberg look gives us warm and fuzzy. It’s a quick emotion-check because it is the most proximate in time if you want yourself some easy nostalgia. The 1950’s don’t work, because the target audience – parents who can spend 40 to 70 grand on a car but don’t want a Lexus – recall the 80’s as their glory years. (And of course the director is auditioning for movie work, and this will be brilliant on his reel. Look! I can do Spielberg!)
Audi is trying to sell its cars to women as well as men, and in this ad targets women. Idealized childhood. Idealized dad. Cartoonish foes, who are all bigger and meaner. And if Drezner wasn’t a guy, and if all of you weren’t guys, you’d see it. But you’re blinded by your sexism. You assume the dad is the star because you can’t imagine anyone but a male being the star.
The stuff about ‘who is cleaning up?’ That is just moronic. Yeah, the true meaning of a parade is ‘who shovels the elephant shit?’
Incidentally, none of you paused and thought, “Hmmm, women are seeing this as a feminist ad, they’re welcoming it, they’re identifying with it, so. . . maybe they’re right?”
Nope, let’s go to some old fart blogger to ‘splain for the little ladies. “This here ad ain’t fer you, little lady. Like everything else, it’s really all about men.”
Do people really watch commercials anymore? Even the Superbowl ones? Now that we have the tech to avoid this stuff, how many people who have enough money to buy an Audi actually watch this? Guess I am a curmudgeon.
Michael,
You might be right, but I looked it up and the Audi S series caters to the upper-middle class male demographic. It could be that Audi is trying to increase it’s appeal to women, or it could be an appeal to upper class men who want to appeal to upper class women. I showed it to my wife and she thought it was a mans commercial (YMMV). I suppose it can work several ways which I guess makes it good advertising. Maybe.
The Mercedes commercial was straight up male boomer sell out. What do you think about it? I love the Coen brothers so I’m partial despite the boomer nostalgia, but the exploitation of Easy Rider for a luxury brand is something even I find kind of icky.
Andy:
It makes me want to sell my Benz. They had Peter Fonda available and rights to Born To Be Wild, and couldn’t figure out what to do with them, so they decided to insult the intelligence of their customers. I can’t tell you who that appeals to, because I suspect the ad agency has no idea. I want the car that blocks motorcycles? Really, boys? I don’t think Boomers are going to take well to crude condescension.
As a rule I despise literary analysis and its related forms. I had this college prof accuse me of ‘erasing Native American characters.’ I said, WTF are you talking about? Eventually she comes up with a classic throwaway character, a guy who is there only to deliver some exposition and die, but happens to be an Indian. Your basic red shirt character. Look out! Aaaargh!
She says that she knows it’s not a throwaway because I’d obviously done some research, to whit, the character points at something using his chin, which, she says triumphantly, is a Native American thing. News to me. The guy was driving an old pick-up truck on a tight dirt road. Both hands on the wheel.
Writers and other people in ‘the arts’ make it worse by peddling a lot of horseshit meant to build themselves up. They spin tales that are nothing more than an attempt to romanticize a largely subconscious process. But most of what you see on a page (or I suspect a movie, an opera, a song, an ad) is there because it has to be. Tropes exist for a reason. The premise dictates most of what follows, in fact it’s a job trying to avoid that tidal flow.
When I was working in Germany the prevailing wisdom was that stodgy burgher types drove Audis, your boss drove a Mercedes, and your boss envied the 25 year old Director of Marketing who drove a BMW. I don’t know if it’s still the same. That was a long time ago.
Dave:
Because I’m a devotee of BBC’s Top Gear and now its Amazon replacement, Grand Tour, I can say that the UK view is that Audis are for twats (in the British usage). I’ve owned Audis (A8 and A6) and Mercedes (S500 and E350) and both companies make wonderful cars, if you overlook everything electrical. My taxonomy of luxury car drivers:
Lexus: old farts who drive 10 mph under the speed limit.
BMW: assholes.
Mercedes: look at me, I have money!
Audi: not enough of an asshole to drive a BMW, too modest to drive a Mercedes.
When I was living in SoCal and occasionally driving onto studio lots to have my time wasted (no, no bitterness there) I drove an A6 as a deliberate choice – cool enough not to look like a loser, not so cool as to challenge my betters.
After I returned from Germany and for about 10 years thereafter I drove a series of BMW 2002s. Then they discontinued that model and its replacements got too sedan-like.
Before Germany I drove VW Beetles. In Germany I drove a Taunus which was a pretty miserable experience.