Is this ad really necessary?
Volkswagen has a new series of ads called “Safety Happens”; if you haven’t seen them I’ll give you the run down. The first one is about two buddies ridding in a car together. The driver is complaining that his woman doesn’t listen to him and the passenger tries to explain to him that it’s because he uses the word ‘like’ constantly. As the passenger says the line “things don’t like happen, they just happen” a red truck (Ford I believe) backs out of the driveway and the Volkswagen slams full force into the side of the truck. We see the airbags deploy and the two buddies slamming into them. A second later we see the two guys standing outside of the car, marks on their faces from the airbags, and the driver gets the word “whoa” out when they sharp cut to the Volkswagen on display with the quote “Safety Happens.”
The second commercial is pretty similar. Four people in a car talking about a movie and how the guy driving cried. He pulls forward into the intersection on a green when an SUV (Ford I believe) runs the red and T-bones the car. We see the side airbag deploy and then we switch to the foursome… or at least three of them, I haven’t seen the driver in the few times I’ve seen the commercial… standing healthy but shaken outside of their car. The girlfriend gets a “whoa” out and then we cut to the Volkswagen on display with the quote “Safety Happens.”
Now I see a few things here that disturb me. First off are the stereotypes being used for the passengers. The driver, who says ‘like’ constantly, is a typical dumb Caucasian male; the type that seems to be perfectly safe to pick on without any backlash. The second commercial is making the male driver look ridiculous for crying in a theater. Neither commercial has a female driving the car and they go out of their way to avoid the politically incorrect stereotypes but seem fine going with the stupid Caucasian male one.
The second thing I noticed is that the accident was the ‘Other’ drivers fault both times, not the person intelligent enough to buy a Volkswagen. Also the vehicle causing the accident in both cases are larger, American made vehicles; the exact opposite of Volkswagen. Nice subliminal messaging there.
Finally, the thing that disturbs me the most on this one has to be the commercials themselves. We wouldn’t allow a simulated rape on a commercial to sell pepper spray. We wouldn’t shows someone burning up to sell smoke alarms or fire extinguishers. One of the reasons, definitely not the only one, is because of the people who have gone through similar tragic events would have no warning that such a commercial was about to air and could cause some psychological trauma. Now thing about the number of people who have been engulfed in flames compared to the number of people who have been in severe car accidents. Do you think any of them enjoy watching a simulated accident done with such incredible detail? Shouldn’t they get a warning before having to sit through such a thing? The commercial is so innocent until the moment of the accident, there is no time to turn away unless you know it’s one of those commercials and you would only know by having seen it.
I find Volkswagen’s commercials to be irresponsible and I hope they are pulled soon.
Volkswagen has a new series of ads called “Safety Happens”; if you haven’t seen them I’ll give you the run down. The first one is about two buddies ridding in a car together. The driver is complaining that his woman doesn’t listen to him and the passenger tries to explain to him that it’s because he uses the word ‘like’ constantly. As the passenger says the line “things don’t like happen, they just happen” a red truck (Ford I believe) backs out of the driveway and the Volkswagen slams full force into the side of the truck. We see the airbags deploy and the two buddies slamming into them. A second later we see the two guys standing outside of the car, marks on their faces from the airbags, and the driver gets the word “whoa” out when they sharp cut to the Volkswagen on display with the quote “Safety Happens.”
The second commercial is pretty similar. Four people in a car talking about a movie and how the guy driving cried. He pulls forward into the intersection on a green when an SUV (Ford I believe) runs the red and T-bones the car. We see the side airbag deploy and then we switch to the foursome… or at least three of them, I haven’t seen the driver in the few times I’ve seen the commercial… standing healthy but shaken outside of their car. The girlfriend gets a “whoa” out and then we cut to the Volkswagen on display with the quote “Safety Happens.”
Now I see a few things here that disturb me. First off are the stereotypes being used for the passengers. The driver, who says ‘like’ constantly, is a typical dumb Caucasian male; the type that seems to be perfectly safe to pick on without any backlash. The second commercial is making the male driver look ridiculous for crying in a theater. Neither commercial has a female driving the car and they go out of their way to avoid the politically incorrect stereotypes but seem fine going with the stupid Caucasian male one.
The second thing I noticed is that the accident was the ‘Other’ drivers fault both times, not the person intelligent enough to buy a Volkswagen. Also the vehicle causing the accident in both cases are larger, American made vehicles; the exact opposite of Volkswagen. Nice subliminal messaging there.
Finally, the thing that disturbs me the most on this one has to be the commercials themselves. We wouldn’t allow a simulated rape on a commercial to sell pepper spray. We wouldn’t shows someone burning up to sell smoke alarms or fire extinguishers. One of the reasons, definitely not the only one, is because of the people who have gone through similar tragic events would have no warning that such a commercial was about to air and could cause some psychological trauma. Now thing about the number of people who have been engulfed in flames compared to the number of people who have been in severe car accidents. Do you think any of them enjoy watching a simulated accident done with such incredible detail? Shouldn’t they get a warning before having to sit through such a thing? The commercial is so innocent until the moment of the accident, there is no time to turn away unless you know it’s one of those commercials and you would only know by having seen it.
I find Volkswagen’s commercials to be irresponsible and I hope they are pulled soon.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home