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Audi laughs at arrogant, conformist tech companies

Commentary: In a new ad for its Q5 crossover, Audi mocks your average interview at a tech company.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


Oh, how contemporary.

Audi/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

They're so superior, these vainglorious Valley types.

They believe they know the future because they are the future and whoever argues with that is simply the past.

Audi, however, wonders about these people. In a new ad for its Q5 crossover, the German car company sniffs, snorts and chuckles at the tech company interview process.

We see a woman being led around by her presumptuous presumptive boss. He's a little like Gavin Belson of "Silicon Valley." You might call him assertive. You might save yourself the last six letters.

He shows her the in-house sushi chef who, sadly, is only the second-best in the world. He shows her the "quiet spaces for deep thoughts." Then he shows her the company's "personal mobility solutions."

These are, apparently, "functional and pragmatic." To my addled eyes, they look remarkably like BMWs with the badges taken off. So yes, functional and pragmatic -- and driven by the superior (in their own heads).

Audi, apparently, represents more than this hellhole of smugness.

It's not functional. It's not pragmatic. It's, well, what?

Oh, yes. It's the company that sold quite a few people a diesel that wasn't quite as functional and pragmatic as the nice Audi dealer said it was. (Confession: I was one of those people.)

The ad, though, clings to a higher plane. "Progress is never blending in," it says.

So don't buy a BMW and don't work in tech is the message. Working in tech is just so conformist these days.

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