QueQuoi, traded in her jackboots for jillstilettossays
No wonder getting the idea of clear enthusiastic consent across to impressionable (usually young, but not always) people is tough.
He could have asked her to dance, she says yes, and still gotten the point across that an expensive fast car will give you self-esteem…
Actually, now that I think about it, the whole damn commercial is insulting.
A couple of years ago, I’d have said what’s the fuss. But then I got meself a bit more educated (thank you to you all for that). It’s frightening, once you know what to look for, how pernicious this sort of thing is.
Josh, Official SpokesGaysays
She’s literally property. The only interests that matter are the males disputing ownership. And though she’s not sentient, she has just enough of a glimmer of self-awareness to be overcome with arousal at being treated as property.
Oh, thanks for that. I don’t remember if I clicked on the link at the time, but I don’t think I did. And yes, the damn ad debuted in January and they’re currently airing it A LOT.
God fucking dammit.
maudellsays
Gross.
Andrew B.says
But vroom! VROOM VROOM VROOM! In closing, “vroom.”
screechymonkeysays
Josh OSG @4:
And though she’s not sentient, she has just enough of a glimmer of self-awareness to be overcome with arousal at being treated as property.
I remember when that commercial first came out, the defense that was offered was “well, she looked like she was happy he kissed her.” Which was a pretty lousy defense, as the message of “just go ahead and take what you want from a woman, and she’ll probably like it” is just a wee bit problematic.
And of course, it’s another example of the anti-feminist brigade trying to have it both ways. They defend the boy’s behavior in the commercial on the grounds that it’s ok if he forcibly kisses her as long as she decides she liked it. But then they complain that harassment complaints are “unfair” because the complainant might have liked it if another, more desirable guy did it.
Rowansays
Someone could easily do a parody version of that, where in the flashback his black eye came from the girl punching him, and the end shot of him driving away in a hurry is because hes being chased by police.
So basically the message is, “Buy an Audi, become a sexually assaulting douchebag, each RS6 comes with a bottle of Axe body spray in the glove compartment and a free fedora.” Audi is the preferred car of Christian Grey, so maybe its some promotional tie in for the movie.
A. Noydsays
Ewww. Sexually assaulting someone in the name of an ego-bolstering, manhood-establishing conquest isn’t “brave.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Rowan (#10)
Audi is the preferred car of Christian Grey, so maybe its some promotional tie in for the movie.
Well, it’s a bit early for a movie tie in, but now that you mention it, I could see them going for a deliberate 50 Shades connection.
Claire Ramseysays
Bravery????? So assaulting a classmate in high school = bravery? And you get the bravery from a car?? Fuck.
Loftysays
Bravery? You mean “Does this car make my cock look big?”
Pathetic.
StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return!says
@12. Claire Ramsey :
Bravery????? So assaulting a classmate in high school = bravery? And you get the bravery from a car?? Fuck.
Well, in grudging fairness, he was assaulted there not doing the assaulting – its not clear whether he hit back or not. But yeah, otherwise spot on.
Anyhow everybody knows bravery comes from a bottle (“Dutch courage” so-called) not a car (Sarc)
So what messages do we take from this ad? Audi promotes dangerous driving, douchebag behaviour towards women and it seems there’s likely very good reason why that “character” was dateless before the prom in the first place.
Also plausibility checks – how many even relatively rich fathers would just check their prized car’s keys to their teenage /early 20’s kid like that? Maybe the father wanted it written off for insurance? And just how often do we get these open traffic-less roads where the characters is the only car on the rather major looking road these days, especially in cities?
(I do like the sarcastic sisters “no they don’t!” line however.)
Better idea for this ad – he goes to kiss her – she twists away and says no -and then her girlfriend comes over and slaps him as well!
A. Noydsays
StevoR (#14)
Well, in grudging fairness, he was assaulted there not doing the assaulting – its not clear whether he hit back or not.
What he did to the young woman was assault.
Also plausibility checks – how many even relatively rich fathers would just check their prized car’s keys to their teenage /early 20′s kid like that?
My sister’s middle school also had a high school and parents would buy their kids expensive cars when they turned 16.
thinksanddrinkssays
My mother talked to me about this *crap* 40 years ago. She said, “Never force a girl to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
I thought about that, thinking that it was strange advice; I had never tried to make anyone do anything they didn’t want to do.
She said, “Has anyone ever tired to make you do something you didn’t want to do?”
I mentally skipped over all of the school garbage where teachers and principals force you to do things (even though I wanted to kill a few people over such things), because I understood where she was coming from. I said “No, outside of the bullies.” There were MANY bullies in my school system, and the teachers didn’t bother to deal with them. (There are still teachers that had better not cross the street in front of my car. A few of them know it; the rest died years ago; mostly of natural causes, as far as the authorities were able to determine.)
She said, “Don’t be a bully.”
That was all the advice I needed. I do not bully women or anyone else. Note: this does not include anyone who tries to bully me. Anyone attempting to bully me is fair game; I am extremely vicious when dealing with them.
Pieter B, FCDsays
I’ve noticed a correlation between douchebaggery and expensive German cars, at least as reflected in driving style and parking-lot behavior.
IIRC, that ad first ran during the Super Bowl, and I hated it then. BTW, is it common to go to the prom without a date these days?
screechymonkeysays
Claire Ramsay @12:
Bravery????? So assaulting a classmate in high school = bravery?
Note the other way the “hero” of the ad shows his “bravery” — by parking in the space marked “Principal Only.” Way to stick it to The Man, you #bravehero!
johnthedrunkardsays
Are they actually trying to sell cars to high-school boys?
That’s particularly creepy. That ADULT men are supposed to be drawn by that message.
Even the language of ‘consent’ doesn’t counter the objectification. An actual person, who has agency in their own life, isn’t passively doling out ‘consent.’ No real kiss between real people is a ‘thing’ to be taken or given.
screechymonkeysays
There’s an ad for a Mercedes airing a lot now, too, where Willem Dafoe plays Satan trying to tempt a young man to sign over his soul for the car “and everything that comes with it.” (Cue montage of the young man dating beautiful women, hanging out in clubs with celebrities, posing for magazine covers, etc.) The punchline is that the guy sees the “affordable” price on the billboard and declines the Devil’s offer because he can afford it on his own.
There’s nothing offensive to me about the ad — and it’s mildly amusing enough as far as these things go — but didn’t advertisers used to shy away from explicitly saying “yeah, use our product and you’ll get all these things”?
ismeniasays
Is there an equivalent of the advertising standards authority in the USA? Can you make a formal complaint.
rnilssonsays
Well, there’s the Allmighty Market. You can simply refuse to buy anything from VAG – Volkswagen-Audi-Porsche-Seat-Skoda – am I forgetting some trademark here? Probably. Prom problem precludes perception per my part. Permission prescribed, please.
No wonder getting the idea of clear enthusiastic consent across to impressionable (usually young, but not always) people is tough.
He could have asked her to dance, she says yes, and still gotten the point across that an expensive fast car will give you self-esteem…
Actually, now that I think about it, the whole damn commercial is insulting.
Yep.
A couple of years ago, I’d have said what’s the fuss. But then I got meself a bit more educated (thank you to you all for that). It’s frightening, once you know what to look for, how pernicious this sort of thing is.
She’s literally property. The only interests that matter are the males disputing ownership. And though she’s not sentient, she has just enough of a glimmer of self-awareness to be overcome with arousal at being treated as property.
Puke.
I knew I remembered this from somewhere. They’re still airing it? Ugh.
Oh, thanks for that. I don’t remember if I clicked on the link at the time, but I don’t think I did. And yes, the damn ad debuted in January and they’re currently airing it A LOT.
God fucking dammit.
Gross.
But vroom! VROOM VROOM VROOM! In closing, “vroom.”
Josh OSG @4:
I remember when that commercial first came out, the defense that was offered was “well, she looked like she was happy he kissed her.” Which was a pretty lousy defense, as the message of “just go ahead and take what you want from a woman, and she’ll probably like it” is just a wee bit problematic.
And of course, it’s another example of the anti-feminist brigade trying to have it both ways. They defend the boy’s behavior in the commercial on the grounds that it’s ok if he forcibly kisses her as long as she decides she liked it. But then they complain that harassment complaints are “unfair” because the complainant might have liked it if another, more desirable guy did it.
Someone could easily do a parody version of that, where in the flashback his black eye came from the girl punching him, and the end shot of him driving away in a hurry is because hes being chased by police.
So basically the message is, “Buy an Audi, become a sexually assaulting douchebag, each RS6 comes with a bottle of Axe body spray in the glove compartment and a free fedora.” Audi is the preferred car of Christian Grey, so maybe its some promotional tie in for the movie.
Ewww. Sexually assaulting someone in the name of an ego-bolstering, manhood-establishing conquest isn’t “brave.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Rowan (#10)
Well, it’s a bit early for a movie tie in, but now that you mention it, I could see them going for a deliberate 50 Shades connection.
Bravery????? So assaulting a classmate in high school = bravery? And you get the bravery from a car?? Fuck.
Bravery? You mean “Does this car make my cock look big?”
Pathetic.
@12. Claire Ramsey :
Well, in grudging fairness, he was assaulted there not doing the assaulting – its not clear whether he hit back or not. But yeah, otherwise spot on.
Anyhow everybody knows bravery comes from a bottle (“Dutch courage” so-called) not a car (Sarc)
So what messages do we take from this ad? Audi promotes dangerous driving, douchebag behaviour towards women and it seems there’s likely very good reason why that “character” was dateless before the prom in the first place.
Also plausibility checks – how many even relatively rich fathers would just check their prized car’s keys to their teenage /early 20’s kid like that? Maybe the father wanted it written off for insurance? And just how often do we get these open traffic-less roads where the characters is the only car on the rather major looking road these days, especially in cities?
(I do like the sarcastic sisters “no they don’t!” line however.)
Better idea for this ad – he goes to kiss her – she twists away and says no -and then her girlfriend comes over and slaps him as well!
StevoR (#14)
What he did to the young woman was assault.
My sister’s middle school also had a high school and parents would buy their kids expensive cars when they turned 16.
My mother talked to me about this *crap* 40 years ago. She said, “Never force a girl to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
I thought about that, thinking that it was strange advice; I had never tried to make anyone do anything they didn’t want to do.
She said, “Has anyone ever tired to make you do something you didn’t want to do?”
I mentally skipped over all of the school garbage where teachers and principals force you to do things (even though I wanted to kill a few people over such things), because I understood where she was coming from. I said “No, outside of the bullies.” There were MANY bullies in my school system, and the teachers didn’t bother to deal with them. (There are still teachers that had better not cross the street in front of my car. A few of them know it; the rest died years ago; mostly of natural causes, as far as the authorities were able to determine.)
She said, “Don’t be a bully.”
That was all the advice I needed. I do not bully women or anyone else. Note: this does not include anyone who tries to bully me. Anyone attempting to bully me is fair game; I am extremely vicious when dealing with them.
I’ve noticed a correlation between douchebaggery and expensive German cars, at least as reflected in driving style and parking-lot behavior.
IIRC, that ad first ran during the Super Bowl, and I hated it then. BTW, is it common to go to the prom without a date these days?
Claire Ramsay @12:
Note the other way the “hero” of the ad shows his “bravery” — by parking in the space marked “Principal Only.” Way to stick it to The Man, you #bravehero!
Are they actually trying to sell cars to high-school boys?
That’s particularly creepy. That ADULT men are supposed to be drawn by that message.
Even the language of ‘consent’ doesn’t counter the objectification. An actual person, who has agency in their own life, isn’t passively doling out ‘consent.’ No real kiss between real people is a ‘thing’ to be taken or given.
There’s an ad for a Mercedes airing a lot now, too, where Willem Dafoe plays Satan trying to tempt a young man to sign over his soul for the car “and everything that comes with it.” (Cue montage of the young man dating beautiful women, hanging out in clubs with celebrities, posing for magazine covers, etc.) The punchline is that the guy sees the “affordable” price on the billboard and declines the Devil’s offer because he can afford it on his own.
There’s nothing offensive to me about the ad — and it’s mildly amusing enough as far as these things go — but didn’t advertisers used to shy away from explicitly saying “yeah, use our product and you’ll get all these things”?
Is there an equivalent of the advertising standards authority in the USA? Can you make a formal complaint.
Well, there’s the Allmighty Market. You can simply refuse to buy anything from VAG – Volkswagen-Audi-Porsche-Seat-Skoda – am I forgetting some trademark here? Probably. Prom problem precludes perception per my part. Permission prescribed, please.