Audi runs over gender stereotypes in new ad
Commentary: A doll escapes her toy store confines and goes to the boy's section. This sends her on an unusual adventure.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
She's driving at something.
Car companies do so love to be macho.
Or, at least, to appear macho.
In their way, they have naturally reinforced gender stereotypes. The man drives, the woman's long, blonde hair blows in the wind.
It seems to have crossed the minds of those who work for Audi in Spain that this is a touch retrograde. It's also a little myopic business-wise.
So their Christmas ad looks at the way that parents buy toys -- and how this influences gender stereotypes -- and sniffs: "Oh, just stop it."
We're in a toy store. Perhaps it should be called "Toys Are Them," because there's a sense that there are boys' toys and there are girls' toys and the two are entirely separate.
Here, the pink, princessy doll has a carriage breakdown. So she swings over the boys' section, because that's where all the vehicles are.
There, she finds an Audi R8. It asks her to be its passenger. She asks it to go take a running jump.
Instead, she leaps into the driver's seat, zooms off and encounters a different world.
It's one where muscular boys' toys sip coffee on the pink side and little pink ponies ride skateboards. And there's a lovely, forward-looking denouement, which I won't spoil for you.
"Let's change the game," says the tagline.
This is surely a start.