Audi Super Bowl ad on pay equality raises praise, criticism and eyebrows
One of the most talked-about Super Bowl ads this year came from Audi, which touted its commitment to equal pay in a 60-second spot about a man and his daughter.
The ad features the dad watching his daughter in a cart race as she passes competitor after competitor, all of them boys, before finishing in first place.
“Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets?” the father says in a voiceover. "Or maybe I'll be able to tell her something different."
The ad cuts to black, and white text appears: “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work. Progress is for everyone.”
It was one in a series of Super Bowl LI ads touching on progressive causes. Airbnb aired an ad promoting acceptance of people “no matter … where you come from,” while Budweiser and hardware chain 84 Lumber told stories of immigrants seeking new lives in America.
All of those ads generated both praise and criticism on Sunday, and Audi’s ad was no different.
Some, including Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer, praised the ad.
Others called Audi’s ad misleading and unfair to men.
As Paste BN’s Alia E. Dastagir reported in a feature on the ad, pay inequality persists despite legislative attempts to address it: “White women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by white men; black women earn 65 cents. The share of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies was 4.2% in 2016.”
That last stat may have inspired other critics of the commercial, some who applauded its premise but criticized Audi as hypocritical. A site listing Audi AG’s board of management features zero women. One for Audi USA’s 14-member executive team lists two women.