Guest Post by The Zman
Prior to the Super Bowl, I was made aware of a television ad from Audi. The ad was based on the long ago discredited claim that women are systematically paid less for doing the same work as men. Here’s the ad. It’s one of those times when the PC proselytizing is actually worse than what you expected. Watching it through to the end is difficult because the smug radiates from the screen like a bad odor. It’s not the ridiculous preening that is repugnant. It is the inappropriateness. Who does Audi think buys their cars?
It’s not hard to imagine the room where this ad was screened for the executives at Audi USA. Men and women in snappy business suits talked about how to target the professional female car buyer. Maybe they had data showing that Audi lags in this segment compared to its competitors. Everyone watched the ad, nodded in agreement, felt brave and wonderful and then agreed it should be the big ad for the big game. No one bothered to ask if Audi or the ad agency pays their females less than their males.
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This ad, put out by a sneaker company, can only be described as offensive. It’s hard to imagine a more offensive ad. It’s also hard to imagine a more ridiculous ad. We just spent eight years with a black president and his mulatto mafia running the country and we are suddenly in need of a lecture about racism, from a sneaker company? They threw a lesbian and some black Muslim women in there, but the clear thrust of the ad is that whites are not accommodating enough to millionaire black athletes. Thanks Nike.
Of course, these ads are not whipped up overnight. They take months to produce, especially ads with multiple stars. Arranging a day for each star can take months of planning. Ads created for a big event like the Super Bowl are often started six months before they hit the air. In this case, these ads were cooked up last summer and put together in late summer and early fall. That means they were dreamed up before the people in charge noticed that the world had changed, if they noticed at all.
It’s another reminder that the Cloud People were absolutely sure that the noises coming from the Dirt People could safely be ignored. Six months ago when these ads were commissioned, the beautiful people were locking arms, certain they were heading off to the Age of Aquarius, where the Dirt People would no longer be a concern. They were so sure they were on the right side of history, they no longer had to pretend to be civil to the rest of us. These ads are a reflection of the smug, arrogant pricks who made them.
Even accounting for the arrogance of these people, the main reason they thought these were swell ads to run is they have “otherized” themselves, to borrow a term from the multiculturalists. It’s not that these people have lost touch with the common man. It’s that they have deliberately alienated themselves from their country and countrymen. These preachy ads have nothing to do with selling cars or sneakers. The ads are a public act of piety by people who are no longer part of the general culture.
It is why the mass media is becoming increasingly bizarre. It’s tempting to think it is nothing more than proselytizing and propaganda, and that is a big part of it, but some of it is due to the insularity of the people inside the media bubble. To them, having a Valentine’s Day program featuring homosexual couples is not normal, it is aspirational and therefore inspirational. The fact that the rest of us find it grating and a bit offensive never comes to mind. Everyone they know thinks it is a great idea and those are the people that count.
We live in a strange age, probably not a lot different from the late feudal period, when the ruling class was largely unaware of the storm that was brewing. If you were an aristocrat, you may not have a lot of money, but what you had was social distance from the people who were not aristocrats. That distance was your currency. The provincial lawyer or merchant may have been accumulating money and lands, but he was never going to be you and never be in your circle. Making that clear was of the highest importance.
The main difference is that the sword nobility was also a defender of the old order, while the Dirt People of the day were looking to topple over the old order. Today, our sword nobility is hell bent of toppling over what’s left of the old order, simply to prove to one another they are not a part of the old order. Highlighting the distance between them and us is their primary fixation. It’s why Trump is so hated despite being a billionaire New Yorker. It’s because he is a man much more comfortable among the Dirt People because he respects them and crossing that class line is the great sin among the others.
The proof of an advertising campaign is the sales it results in and the financial benefit to the company it produces.
That ad would discourage me from considering them for a new purchase, but I’m not the type that would be buying an Audi anyway so that doesn’t mean anything.
How did their target market react to it? That is the question.
The quickest road to failure is trying to please everyone.
The same applies to everything else, political, social, cultural or economic, target those you want to support you and don’t worry about the ones that won’t anyway.
My friend from Deutschland says “yah, Audi is piece of shit”. Having owned one, I agree. All of the controls inside the car are in size 6 fonts. I needed to wear reading glasses to turn on the heater. They’re ridiculously expensive and if you need to re-program the radio after the battery was disconnected the dealer will charge you $50 to email Germany for the code. So Audi buyers are the same idiots who respond favorably to PC bullshit.
Read the above post again, and again. I am very familiar with Audis and their country cousin the modern VW. These cars sell entirely to people who are superficial, unable to see the glaring defects in long term cost of operation. All but one of the Audi drivers I know are women, with the exception being a male whose “man card” is a bit thin.
My 2 cents.
Audi was quite a fine car, especially the older ones called DKW. But those of the last 30 years are “piece of shit”.
Not only that attracting new customers, in this day and age you have to worry about alienating your old ones. Did enough womyn and feminized millennial myn buy audis to make up for your traditional upper middle class male customers that won’t because they are tired of being lectured? Probably not.
And I’m with you. Id mever buy an Audi anyway, so their sales tactics are lost on me. About the only recent commercials that have changed my habits is are from Budweiser. I’ll never buy another Budweiser beer as long as I live.
Again,another losing ad campaign trying to be social warriors concocted with a multi martini lunch and a ad execs pile of blow.I would also say audis are a pain in the ass to work on,even those with monies now to pay a tech may find themselves needing to do their own repairs,nope,not for me.
My wife has been an advertising executive for major league companies. She has expressed astonishment at the percentage of Super Bowl ads (and this started in the ’80s) that obviously aren’t designed to sell the product, and in some cases barely mention the product. If you want to sell a product, you need to talk convincingly about the product, not social justice.
Now that they are successful, these companies are playing the ‘good corporate citizen’ role and have no need boost sales through a lowly add campaign. Sales are becoming almost irrelevant….all that is needed is continued low interest rates so they can borrow more to do stock buy-backs……which is all that is needed to keep that share price going up.
That’s a great point. Most of them aren’t engaged in capex anymore. They are paring back on employees in a lot of cases. ZIRP enabled stock buy backs are what drives share prices. These are all just virtue signaling. Plus, it keeps the black masked/vagina costume brigade from storming their corporate office because there were too many white men in their commercials.
FUCK TV. FUCK those dumbshit commercials designed to help me “check my privilege” . The only privilege I have seems to be the privilege of working 60 hours a week while raising three kids to not be degenerate pieces of shit.
I was thinking the same when you mentioned the ads. That they had to have been commissioned pre-election. That the beneficiaries of the new noblesse oblige doesn’t seem to be very interested in its benefits ( other than being exalted in the media) should have tipped them off that things were not as they imagined.
The feral hoodrat making an ass out of himself at a dying shopping mall is not interested in homosexual or women’s rights. His icon is some tattooed thug ball player or rap ‘star’. Young women don’t even have the hope of becoming a 20 something sports millionaire. For them the route to success is as it has always been- trade on one’s youth and beauty and become either a singer, actress or rich man’s toy. All the platitudes about equal pay mean nothing when equal pay only means a dead end job on the road to nowhere.
That is what the liberal Democrats don’t understand. They’ve finally done it. Used up all the wealth in the nation to feather their own nests and those of their minority pets to the point there is nothing left for the next generation. All the liberal Democrats can do is feed the anger and resentment of those whose futures they stole.
And the feral hood rats murder each other over some sneaker made in China for 2 dollars that some basketball hood rat endorses. Is it any wonder when they loot they always take toilet paper and skittles?
Here you go.
This is what you would call “market research” and you would probably pay handsomely for it, but I’m doing it gratis because that’s just the kind of guy I am.
What would you say if I told you that I had a way for you to take your products from 500,000th to #1, #2 and #6 in under 24 hours?
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-MP3-Downloads/zgbs/dmusic/digital-music-album/ref=zg_bs
Part of the reason we get the crap we are force fed is because companies no longer care if they make money or even if they stay in business as long as they get to claim a form of political righteousness.
I don’t understand it, but it is a fact.
This is why I firmly believe that this is all going to be a distant memory before my own lifetime comes to an end. It isn’t that it is just false or harmful, it is bent on its own destruction. Like someone who does heroin there is only one end-game and it not only ends in death, it is going to cost everything you every had or ever might have to fund it.
My wife of twenty years earns 3x’s what I earn and I’m damn proud of that. Audi can take their cars and shove em up Barry’s hole. And yes Audi, the wife can pluck down money on most of your eurotrash vehicles, but she loves her old Honda and car payments don’t fly in our family anymore. People still wear Nike’s??? I’ll take my Red Wings.
Not giving 2 shits about either team playing the big game this year I actually wanted to see some good commercials. What an epic disappointment. My brother and I had several comments about the loss of “good” advertising like The Bud Bowl. Watching beer bottles play football is so much better than some SJW bullshit ad that has nothing to do with selling cars or shoes or…lumber.
All I know is my mom made more than my dad, my grandma was worth several million, my cousin (girl) owns her own diesel shop, my wife makes way more than I do, and according to the statistics men, especially young men are the disaffected, dropouts, and unemployed. Some of that is their lack of ambition and ability to adapt, and some of that is being told time and time again that no one cares if you succeed (since you will and you are a bastard for doing so). My wife (a professor) was telling me that they are now developing programs to try and catch and help the legions of white males that don’t stay in college. After hearing that they aren’t welcome a thousand times a thousand I guess they get the hint and go away.
Weak Zman. You let your emotions interfere with your writing. While I agree with your assessment of the Audi ad, the Nike ad was damned nice and probably did inspire some folks to go out and buy Nike. It wouldn’t be me because I am a New Balance type of guy but some folks do wear Nike and they are inspired by the folks that you disparage. I just don’t see how showing a bunch of successful people, almost all of them black, is a bad thing. Each one of them is saying “stand up…do the right thing…be something…and you can succeed. That is a good message for all of the young people in merika who think that they don’t have to perform to get anywhere. We all have to perform. That’s what makes the whole thing a society.
I do, however, strongly endorse your opinion about the audi ad. Those people, who were 100% sure that Hillary was going to be president when they pulled the trigger on that ad, were simply pandering to the new president so she wouldn’t go after them about some jiggering of pollution test results or some other criminal activity. You have seen the crying from the sky people as their stream of mana has been pissed on by the new administration. I for one am happy to see their tears and their fear.
Perhaps things would improve if more black people would go outside and stop spraypainting things, put the roundballs down, and go look for jobs. That’s how I get my change to come.
I got a little girl and she doesn’t need a bullshit commercial to teach her to feel good about herself. She just needs me.
If I was ever incline to buy an Audi, and had the money, that ad would certainly turn me away from that. This comes from someone who twice voted in the primaries for a woman for President and was prepared to write in a third.
Greetings,
These commercials make 100% sense if you think of these companies as living people.
I’m not telling you to think of Nike or Audi as a living person to be edgy. I’m telling you to think of Home Depot as a living entity because that is exactly how these things are thought about internally. I’ve sat in on countless branding type meetings and when a company, say Samsung, is working out a problem, the executives always refer to the brand in 3rd person and as a living entity. “Who is Samsung?” would be a question heard over and over again were I doing something for Samsung.
The “who we are” question usually takes on the attributes of the target demographic. Now, with companies attempting to target lefties, Virtue Signaling must be incorporated into the Brand. Audi, Nike and other felt that they must impart Virtue Signaling into living essence of the Brand in order to increase sales. It is brilliant if you think about it. Audi is now your nerdy lesbian aunt.
It’s all about the almighty dollar, quarter, dime, nickel and every last fucking penny they can wring from your wallet. These companies don’t give two shits about you……be you democrat or republican as long as you pony up your hard earned money for their overpriced crap. I’m not against capitalism but I am absolutely opposed to corporate greed for the sake of greed. Fuck ’em!
I can afford several Audis and thousands of Nikes. I’ll never buy either because I refuse to support corporate whores who will do anything for a dollar.
I was at a restaurant/bar full of FedEx drivers .You should have heard the howls from hell.I started to walk out but I was around like minded men who hate these damn commercials so I decided to stay and watch the game.
Hey Meathead ( Sonic ) ,did you watch those videos of Muslims engaged in their favorite pass time ? Are you sure they are just like the rest of us ?All men are the same ,all cultures are equal ,right ? I hope you stay around. There’s so much you can learn from guys like me . I’m full of wisdom which I usually charge 50 bucks per pop but you will get a good discount cause I can tell you really need HELP.
I think you hit the nail on the head, Nickel. All these companies with their ‘look at our moral high ground’ adds are doing nothing but virtue signaling. Trying to one up each other to prove how socially aware and righteous they are. I don’t see this crap going away anytime soon. It’s the new trend in advertising. Also, If I see another mixed race, blended family in a tv commercial portrayed as the norm, I’m going to puke.
I’m with Heff. These are nothing but “Hillary will be queen” virtue signalling by folks who had to assume that she would be in charge.
I once drove an Audi over 110…smooth ride.
I’ve noticed more and more of the “Blended Families ” on ads . The white husband/black wife and vise versa with of course the mixed kids. To each his own is my general feeling but don’t push this shit down my throat . Most whites marry whites etc….the ads are promoting something that isn’t that common as of yet .
I guess it just proves the conspiracy theory of wanting to mix folks in order to have a dumbed down society
How long have girls been getting on football teams in high school. There was no girls basketball when I was little. I remember thinking girls basketball oh pshaw!! Right! Well, it turned out girls were good at basketball, heck I didn’t know they even liked basketball back then. Then came softball, shoot guys hardly even thought about softball. I worked in the union with a gal that made just as much as I did. My mom was the first woman to hold a union card in our town all those years ago, I never heard if it was for less pay. If anyone signs up for minimum wage job there is no rule for “women get less. If woman is qualified she will probably get better pay because she ain’t a white male. When I was young it was a great accomplishment when I could finally outwork my mom. It took a loooong time to finally keep up with Dad. Twice. I finally got to where I could pass him because he refused to race.
SJW politics is most sickening. It might have been Audi or another car company that had a charitable contribution to one of your favorite charities, if you bought a car from them. Top of that list was planned parenthood. plus 4 or 5 others. I was like “oh please” I would never donate to the first one let alone the others. Target Audience?? YUP! I definitely wasn’t in it let alone most everyone I know. Great article keep your swords sharp and powder dry