While most companies choose to air an ad featuring a puppy, a farting baby, or Betty White during the Super Bowl, this Sunday Audi America is using their very expensive time to make a commitment towards equality.
The 60-second ad, which you can see above, is titled ''. It shows a father watching his daughter winning a boxcar derby race.
"What do I tell my daughter?" he asks himself in the voiceover as he watches.
"Do I tell her that her grandpa is worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom? Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets?”
At the end of the ad, Audi makes a pledges to support equal pay. "Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work," and, “Progress is for everyone,” appear on the screen.
Except because the world is full of idiots, people have decided this very positive ad is bad news.
As reported by Wall Street Journal, the ad's YouTube clip had "over 18,000 negative comments compared to around 1,110 positive ones."
"Some viewers were offended by the message, calling it '100% liberal trash propaganda' and 'anti-male propaganda'."
Just stop, guys. Women deserving equal pay for equal work is not the same thing as taking wages away from men.
Back to Audi, who are at least trying to do their job. As a first step towards more gender equality, they hired female director Aoife McArdle to create the ad.
“It goes without saying that we should be blind to gender and race,” McArdle said in a statement, according to AdAge. “People’s merit can’t be predetermined on the purely superficial. It’s commendable that Audi is committed to implementing equality in the workplace. Hopefully other leading brands will follow suit.”
According to economists, if things stay the way they are, the gender pay gap will close in 52 years. So, good on Audi. In 2186 when I make as much as a man doing the same work I'm going to buy one.
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