Audi is another advertiser using its Super Bowl spot to join the USA’s raging political debate: it’s Big Game commercial promotes gender pay equality
The ‘Daughter’ spot, which revolves around a father and daughter downhill cart race narrative, sees the auto brand link itself to female empowerment and gender equality.
The 60-second ad, released a few days ahead of the 5 February Super Bowl, tells the story of a dad asking himself how society will value his daughter’s worth as he watches her compete in a downhill cart race.
The father’s voiceover ponders ‘What should I tell my daughter….that she will automatically be valued less than every man she’ll ever meet?’ before closing on a positive note in the form of the hope that she will be treated fairly and finishing with an Audi commitment pledge to equal pay for equal work.
The video was initially posted on the brand’s digital and social channels on 1 February
Women are still paid 21% less than men. As a brand that believes in progress, we are committed to equal pay for equal work. #DriveProgress pic.twitter.com/bmQKrNr9l4
— Audi (@Audi) February 1, 2017
and PR’d through the mainstream and marketing media.
The commercial, developed in harness with creative agency Venables Bell & Partners, will run in the game’s third quarter.
In support of the spearhead Super Bowl spot, Audi is also promoting its #DriveProgress hashtag around the game and through the following year as it promotes further equality initiatives.
Audi is also running a custom Snapchat filter nationwide to encourage fans to ‘participate in the #DriveProgress conversation by sharing their own stories’.
The core ad itself was directed by Somesuch’s ‘Aoife McArdle’ (a leading female helmer who has previously worked on campaigns for P&G (Secret), Under Armour, Honda and Samsung.
‘As part of the message of equality, Audi felt it was important to use a female director,’ said an Audi spokeswoman at the campaign launch.
In 2016 McArdle also directed a spot for Secret that also carried an equal pay message.
‘It goes without saying that we should be blind to gender and race. People’s merit can’t be predetermined on the purely superficial,’ said McArdle herself.
‘It’s commendable that Audi is committed to implementing equality in the workplace. Hopefully other leading brands will follow suit.’
‘Pay equality is a big message for a big stage,’ said Loren Angelo, VP of marketing at Audi of America, in a press release promoting the Big Game ad.
‘As a business built on bold innovation – from LED lighting to Audi Quattro – progress is at the heart of what we do. We’re a brand that’s ahead of the curve and looking toward the future, just like our next generation of buyers.’
Activative Comment:
With more than 2m YouTube views within 24 hours the spot is certainly generating some traction.
Not surprising considering that the topic of gender equity is one of the issues at the very forefront of societal consciousness in the US as debate, controversy and protest swirls around President Trump.
The protest peaked following Trump’s horrifyingly sexist comments in a video.
The Super Bowl is turning into a huge and highly controversial battle over the new president’s divisiveness highlighting the deep divisions in the country and advertisers and sponsors are having to take sides and stand up for the issues they believe in (think of Budweiser’s pro-immigration, origin story spot – see case study).
But even before Trump bludgeoned his way onto the US political landscape, female empowerment ads have been steadily rising in number and popularity in recent years as more brands begin to make sexual equality statements part of their mainstream marketing.
For example, last year Bud Light ran an equal pay for women ad that co-starred Amy Schumer.
Gender inequity also remains a major issue in the advertising business itself – with women only accounting for just 10% of the rostered directors of the production companies on Ad Age and Creativity’s Production Company A-List.
Gender inequality in the marketing industry inspired the launch of the ‘Free The Bid’ (http://freethebid.com/) which called on ad agencies and brand marketing teams to include a female director on all triple-bid production projects.
And yet Audi has a way to go before achieving genuine gender equality amongst its top executives: only two of the 14-person Audi USA executive team are women.
‘Today, women comprise roughly 12% of Audi senior management workforce, including our senior VP, chief communications officer and senior director of human resources,’ admitted Angelo.
‘In 2017 and beyond, we continue to support pay equality and pledge to put aggressive hiring and development strategies in place to increase the number of women in our workforce, at all levels.’
Audi also backs several gender equality programmes in the US: these include a graduate internship program where 50% of those taking part must be women, as well as a partnership with the American Film Institute’s annual ‘AFI Fest’ event to create an Audi fellowship scholarship program that grants one promising female director enrolment in the Afi Conservatory.
Audi’s gender equality stance is not just an Audi America pillar.
Last Christmas the car brand’s Spanish division created an animated digital film breaking down toy gender stereotypes called ‘the Doll That Chose Top Drive’.
Links:
Audi America
https://www.youtube.com/user/AudiofAmerica
https://www.instagram.com/audi/
Venables Bell & Partners
