Audi R8 Commercial

Nowadays, commercials are everywhere in our daily life. When we watch TV, we can always find some common ways that producers use in commercials in order to persuade customers to purchase their products. The commercial I choose to talk about for this assignment is a Rudi R8 “Let’s change the game” commercial. After describing what happens in this commercial, I would also provide my thoughts about how this commercial use mythology to express its theme (Jared, n.p). The Audi R8 commercial expresses that we need to change our mind about gender stereotypes.

​            The car commercial by Audi covers the issue of gender stereotypes in the world today. The advertising presents a toy store with two stands – pink one and blue one. When the store is closed, the toys come to life. At the beginning, one of the Barbie dolls seems to have a heavy carriage that she cannot move it. The heavy carriage which the girl tries to push is symbolic, in the sense that it shows that you do not need to be muscular to drive an Audi R8. The car moves at a very high speed, and requires little to know energy to push it while driving. This symbolism therefore seeks to do away with gender stereotypes, through showing how the car can be driven by anyone, regardless of their gender or otherwise masculinity, “commercial for women therefore acts to reinforce masculinity under patriarchy and, most, offer men help in coping with a life plagued by women of raised… (Steve, 192)” Unlike the carrier which was hard to push, the car could be easily driven by the girl, at a very high speed.

The ad has also embraced all genders, whereby both male and female characters have taken part in the ad. For instance, while the girl was driving, along the way, she met a muscular guy who was eating by the roadside. The muscular guy was happy to see her, and he immediately greeted her as she hooted. This consequently shows how men appreciate what women do, even though the world categorizes them as feminine. The girl in the ad is in total control, whereby she is the main character, a factor which makes other people to particularly men to appreciate her. A soldier, who is on the parachute follows the girl as she races with the small car, and ends up falling because he never paid attention to where he was heading, while the girl drives the car at a neck breaking speed. In as much as the soldier must have been strong, he may have known how to win a war, in this case he was vulnerable, as he ended up falling from the parachute because the girl who was in control, drove very fast, making him to lose control of the parachute, “this commercial portrays the woman’s man (Steve, 191).”      

            The ad has also changed the gender stereotype which categorizes women as receivers, in this case, being people who are only given things. The girl walked into the store, and she bought the car by herself, thus explaining that it is not only men who can afford to walk into a store and purchase a high-end car, but women can also do so. Judging from the reactions of the boy whose mother bought the car for him, he wanted to take both the girl and the car, thinking that they were being sold together. This shows how the young boy appreciates women, and believes that women are also equal to men, and they can be able to drive high end cars too.

            When Barbie gets to the blue storage car, all cars, including bulldozers are excited to see her, and they all hope to be driven by her (Jared, n.p). However the cars look sophisticated and hard to drive, they are excited to be driven by her. However, she opts for the best car amongst all of them, which is the Audi R8. Audi created the ad to boost the sale of its new model car Audi R8, and it was necessary to use a beautiful lady, in order to only make ladies to be attracted to the car, but to also attract men, who would be attracted to the car because of how beautiful the girl is. In so doing, Audi entices men, through attracting their attention to the girl, thus making them to see the beauty of an Audi R8, a factor which translates to more male and female buyers, “…it is the woman’s body that is portrayed as the source of the man’s attraction, and it is only through maintaining that attraction that she can successfully negotiate the relationship… (Steve, 191)”  

            Thirdly, the name of the ad itself, ‘Lets Change the Game’ makes the ad unique, in the sense that the main aim of the ad is to change the public’s perception regarding gender stereotypes (Jared, n.p). The lady used in the ad, is there as a game changer, who is used in order to boost the morale of women in the society, thus showing them that they can also drive a high end car such as Audi R8. Furthermore, the main purpose of using Barbie is to make ladies to be attracted to such a car, and to also acquire it on their own, without having to depend on any man for financial support. Similarly, at the end of the ad, the word’s ‘playing, just like a game, shouldn’t be a matter of gender’ are displayed on the screen (Jared, n.p). The words clearly explain how gender cannot be used in such a situation, since the car can be bought and driven by anyone, regardless of their gender. Hence the ad is doing away with gender stereotypes and patriarchy, through allowing a lady to be the main character of such an ad.                                         

Consequently, commercials are a part of a social reality and they appear in our daily life all around. In order to make the commercials more effective, producers always use different methods to strike a chord. Mythology which uses in commercials inspires audiences’ interests and appetites to purchase the product (Steve, 183). When a commercial becomes easy to create an emotional response in audiences’ mind, it may become easier to persuade customers to purchase their products. A good commercial with appropriate mythology can show the features of products clearly and help audiences to make the correct choice. Clear commercials can reflect and even affect the society. Nonetheless, good commercial need to embrace gender equality, thus allowing both men and women to participate in the ad as characters, hence attracting men and women to the product.

Work Cited

Steve Craig. Chapter 1.

Steve Craig, Chapter 2. Brought to you Bu(y)

Jared Rosenholtz. Audi Recreates Toy Story with an Audi R8 in a New Short Film. Car Buzz. 2017. Print.