Audi ad - girl eating banana

[Lettera]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53648638

When I saw this my first thought was it feels like 1974 again. Then I thought no - in 1974 it would have been a woman wearing a bikini draped over the bonnet, rather than a sexualised female child. I despair.

I’d almost think their marketing department has been infested with trolls.

I am not sure what they thought they were communicating there anyway. Such a weird image.

Oof, that’s pretty bad. Oftentimes I think people complaining about ads are making a mountain out of a molehill, but there’s really no other way to interpret that ad, especially with the ‘makes your heart beat faster’ tagline.

I thought your title was a bit odd calling an adult woman a girl...sorry OP. You were just reporting the facts.

I had a theory that the fashion industry purposely courted controversy with racist imagery. Just to get publicity. I have to wonder if this isn't dissimilar. In which case, good grief is this what we've come to?!

Oh god that is BAD. That made me gasp.

beargrass Interesting you should say that, because one of the links that came up on that page was about a racist car ad.

@Thelnebriati oh really? I didn't clock that. Aside from the content, it was also the reply from Audi with its big list of features of the car that made me wonder.

It did seem off.

Strikes me as a dangerous place for a short person to stand.

Apart from being inappropriate, it just doesn't make any sense. Someone thought this up and others agreed it was a good idea. I just can't believe someone didn't say "this is inappropriate and WTF has it got to do with cars?!".

@Dreeple

Strikes me as a dangerous place for a short person to stand.

Wasn't that the point they were trying to emphasise, safety. Sensors would pick her up before mum or dad ran her over.

They discussed it on Jeremy Vine Ch5 this morning. I think it has been pulled now.

So old-fashioned, a red car. Have the gonks at Audi not noticed that the in-colour for cars this year is blue (many different shades of it, but blue)?

LizzieMacQueen: Sensors would pick her up before mum or dad ran her over

Safety and warning devices like that work perfectly, until the day you need them.

I think it’s entirely deliberate. It is after all just an image of a girl leaning on a car with a banana, but it can entirely be taken another way too. People will complain, free publicity, and hell we have even gotten into discussion of the finer points of the safety features on the vehicle! Job done from Audi’s pov, wether they take the ad down or not...

It was an intentional marketing ploy that worked. Awful. It hasn't worked on everyone though. I wouldn't buy an Audi after that ad. Isn't Audi part of the same group that cheated on omissions?

emissions

Yuk.

Especially so as there have been decades of research done into symbolism and subliminal pokes in the name of marketing - look up Edward Bernays for starters. Sex sells has always been a keystone of marketing, especially of high end merch. In this day and age an ad like this has either been put together by someone with no knowledge of marketing or else the slow creep of boundary pushing is hitting harder.

Back in the olden days, when we occasionally went to the picture house, watching the adverts and trying to guess what they were actually FOR before the big reveal was a favourite game of ours - "Scantily clad woman, wild weather, luxurious apartment, pretty boy - usually perfume or sunglasses...."

In advertising, nothing is 'just an image' (as OldQueen points out).

If you imagine the picture with an adult woman instead of a child the sexual tropes are obvious. Apparently the child is even wearing an animal-print dress.

This is paedophilia hiding in plain sight.

I agree @Lettera.

If Audi would like an uptick in purchases from 21st century women - and hopefully men - how about showing the whole family in overalls giving the car an overhaul - you know all the practical stuff one should be able to do like change a tyre, check oil levels etc, as a normal family experience?

That's if you have to do anything with this sort of car - many of my driving friends grumble about how everything is now so computerized they have to pay an arm and a leg at an official outlet to deal with routine glitches.

Oh the joy of the modern world....... as soon as they invent time travel, I'm going backwards. I'm just not wired for the current speed of "progress"......

It's a sports car. They aren't promoting how well child seats fit in the back so no requirement for a child in the advert. Especially not one eating a banana in animal print dress.
Disgusting.

What worries me most is how many people must have signed off this advert, from concept through to picking the child model, to sign off of the final image. Did none of them think, "Hang on? Is this really what we want to be aligned with?"?

Is that really an animal print dress? It looks just like small splodges of various colours to me.

I was expecting this to be a massive overreaction but no, that’s genuinely awful. I agree that it’s got to be deliberate, no way did that get through all those meetings and execs without someone going “hang on folks, are we sure this sense the right message?”