Rutting Season or Routan Season?
Posted by Joni in General
You can hardly tell the difference with Volkswagen’s new series of Routan ads featuring Brooke Shields. While it’s presented in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, that doesn’t make it any less repugnant to me. Maybe they did that simply because they knew darn good and well that was the only way they’d get it past a lot of folks. I’m no feminist by a long stretch, but the message this ad is sending sets women back tens of thousands of years to when they were being dragged by their hair into caves to breed children. Women have been struggling for the past 40-odd years for some equality and they’ve been once again reduced to sperm receptacles and human basinettes in the span of a 30-second sound bite.
Second of all, there are enough unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children in this world and to send a message to young women that it’s “okay” to procreate simply to upgrade your vehicle or drive a “cool” (by WHOSE standards?) minivan is asinine. I’m childfree by choice and if I never drive a gas-guzzling SUV or minvan as long as I live, it will be too soon. If VW thought this was the antidote to the “soccer mom” label, they were sadly mistaken.
It makes me wonder about the safety and value of the vehicle itself. Nothing’s mentioned about this German engineering women are impregnating themselves to acquire. Sounds like much do about nothing if you ask me. All I can say is, “Thanks, Volkswagen, but no thanks. I’ll keep my Honda, my sanity and my diaphragm.”
And it isn’t that Volkswagen and Madison Avenue can’t come up with something irreverent to tout its latest automotive creation. Behold: