Open Season on Women

"More and more people are having babies simply for the love of german engineering." Brooke Shields in the new Volkswagen Routan ad campaign

This commercial just wigs me out. It took a bit for me to figure out why and frankly, it was the new Chevy Traverse commercial that closed the brain loop for me. You know the one...a woman driving a Traverse notices shoes falling from the sky, stops her car, and begins to scoop them up by the armful and shove them in the cargo hold of her car. Leaving me to wonder, 'how do you match the pairs?'

Maybe I'm just being sensitive here but just WHO is the target audience supposed to be for these two ads? Does Volkswagen really think that having Brooke Shields lecture in the mockumentary about the relationship between family planning and mini-vans is going to make women feel anything but stereotyped?

Does Chevy really think that the way you sell a car to a woman is to throw shoes at it?

Cadillac did this right with the fabulous Kate Walsh delivering the line "The question is, when you turn it on does it return the favor?" in a way that made it clear that it's not just a car for the boys club.

Just because a woman has children doesn't mean she wants to be classified as a "soccer" or "hockey" mom. Giving birth does NOT make a woman take leave of her senses or her sense of style. Nor does it create in her a wanton lustfullness for german engineering.

I love shoes, this is true. I also love gadgets. You wanna sell me on a car? Show me the amazing navigation system that connects me to all of my data on the go any time I need it. Treat me as smarter than a woman who, noticing shoes falling out of the sky, doesn't bother to ask "what is going on?" and instead hops out and scoops them up. That ad is just stupid on too many levels to mention.

It certainly seems to me that the advertising industry has picked up on the public sentiment that a woman who is strong, confident, and capable is nothing more than a woman who will have a child or stop for shoes all for a car. It makes me wonder where this came from and to be honest, I'm afraid much of it is flourishing in the political arena...on both sides.

William Shatner's character Denny Crane said, on Boston Legal this week, that sexism is alive and well in American and women are the ones perpetuating it.

You think?

Because when ads like these or politics like we've seen in the past 18 months succeed, we most certainly are perptuating it. And we should be deeply ashamed.


NL