Hansen
It’s that time of the year where companies spend millions of dollars per year for a 30 second slice of airtime. Where many millions of football and sports fans glue their eyes on an ever increasingly giant screen, while stuffing their faces with delicious nachos, sauced by leftover buffalo wing sauce from their fingertips. God Bless America, because it’s the Superbowl! And the nominee for this year’s most controversial Superbowl ad comes from Audi.
The commercial pivots around the story of a young girl in a soap box derby race, where the competition looked to be mostly or all boys. As the race progressed, the narrator, also the father, begins questioning what he should tell his daughter about her worth as reflected by the generations before her. He stated that despite her merits, he might have to tell her that she’ll be automatically valued less than every man she ever meets. Or that he may be able to tell her something different.
This powerful commercial takes a progressive stance on a problem that has existed for a very long time: Gender inequality in the work force. It has been well documented that for every dollar a man earns a woman would only earn 80%, according to the AAUW (American Association of University Women) study on the median annual earnings and earnings ratio for full-time, year-round workers. At the end of the commercial they state “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work” and that “Progress is for everyone.”
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This one minute spot is causing quite the stir in the YouTube comments section alone, generating over 35,000 thumbs down and only 2,800 likes. The comments complained about Audi pushing their feminist agenda, that the wage gap isn’t real, that women have more rights here in America than any other country. Most of these commenters seem to have been redirected from alt-right and conservative sources to obliterate the ratings with thumbs downs.
Personally, I’m happy Audi is displaying an ad like this for the Superbowl, so we can all initiate a tough conversation that’s affecting over half of the population in the United States. But based on the comments from YouTube alone, it doesn’t look like America is quite ready for it yet. Where do you stand on this issue? Agree or disagree? We want to hear about it.
(Source: YouTube)
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