Audi Faces Resistance to Equal Pay Advocacy
Earlier this month, Audi rolled out a 60-second spot for the Super Bowl entitled “Daughter” that told the story of a girl soapbox derby driver on her way to victory, and featured her father in a voiceover wondering what he would tell her about unequal pay in this country. Created by Aoife McArdle, an award-winning filmmaker, the commercial should have been an emotional ad to pull at your heartstrings, but instead it sparked controversy online.
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Take a look at the commercial for yourself below, if you missed it on Super Bowl Sunday.
If you look at just the comments section of the commercial’s YouTube page, commenters are calling out Audi, saying that the ad is against President Trump, that the gender pay gap is a myth, or just using the opportunity to smack down the feminists who cheered the commercial.
You have to admit that the commercial is pretty brave, because Audi was airing a women’s issue during the biggest game of a male-dominated sport. Anticipating the backlash, Audi cited its commercial’s sources with research from the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. Of course, in the era we live in now, it seems that online opinion is swayed more by who can yell loudest instead of who is actually right.
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This isn’t the first time that Audi has advocated for gender equality. At Christmas, the luxury automaker aired a commercial in Spain that encouraged girls and boys to play with whatever toys they wanted, instead of sticking to gender sterotypes. March 8th is International Women’s Day, and that might be a better day for Audi to run the commercial again to celebrate. Regardless of where you stand on the gender pay gap, we should all acknowledge that the commercial still hits on points that matter about how we treat girls and how we make them feel that they are limited by their gender. We need to improve in other areas besides the dollars and cents that show up on our paystubs.
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