Some people are attacking one of my favorite ads from this year’s Super Bowl as “promoting sexual assault” because it depicts a teenager forcing himself onto the prom queen. Le sigh, people.
Audi’s ‘prom’ ad shows a seriously cute teenage boy getting ready to attend prom stag (no explanation as to why such a cutie had a problem getting a date, but whatever). His dad gives him the keys to his Audi, and presumably from the courage he gains by driving such a hot car, he parks right in the principal’s spot, walks into the dance, and plants one on the prom queen. The prom king does not look pleased, and the scene cuts to the boy driving away with a black eye and a giant grin. The tag line reads: Bravery. It’s what defines us.
Rather than enjoying the super sweet commercial, some joyless people took to Twitter to condemn it as sexual assault. Um ... ok. Not sure how you get that out of the commercial they played, but some people are really determined to stretch reality to fit their narratives.
Kissing a girl is not assault -- it’s called making a move. If you look at the girl’s reaction, it’s not exactly like she’s trying to push him away either. She even seems to enjoy it. Hey, maybe that’s why the kid doesn’t have a date to the prom! He’s never gotten up the gumption to tell her how he feels. Maybe, just maybe, based on her reaction, she feels the same way about him and would be glad to dump her ham-handed boyfriend for him.
Speaking of the prom king and the black eye he gave our hero, if the haters want to call it sexism, why don’t they talk about the fact that Audi chose to portray the girl as helpless to defend herself and in need of a man to do it for her? Again, because it’s clear that while caught off-guard, the girl liked the kiss. She kissed back. She smiled with a dazed look in her eyes after it was over.
Maybe the kid deserved a black eye for making a move on another guy’s girl -- but he certainly not one for sexual assault.
Do you think Audi is promoting sexual assault and teen violence in the ad?
Image via AudiofAmerica/YouTube
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 12
Like Lucia said, this is scripted to be cute and that's all well and good, but as a woman who has been the victim of a few "brave" guys (one who decided to reach up my skirt on a sardine can crowded subway; many who thought it would be okay to force their mouth upon me in a bar or when walking me home after a failed date or who "thought it was the right thing to do" -- hello! ask me!; or the countless unmitigated assgrabs from whom? "Confident" men -- with confident here probably being synonymous with drunk) being kissed against your will is most definitely sexual assault -- not making a move. There is a fine line.
It's not the commercial that's the problem. Not at all. That had a very clear narrative arc that implied with little doubt that she dug the kiss and that the boy was successful in this fantastical, time-honored tradition of boy gets girl -- even if for but a moment.
Cont...
... cont
The problem is posts like this where the writer is -- like the those tweeting -- part of the problem and not the solution. Whether you meant it to read as it does, you have dismissed sexual assault as trifling and something to be disregarded with an eyeroll. Why not use this as a catalyst to get a discussion going about teenagers often being shanghai'd into things they don't feel ready for, but succumb to as a result of peer pressure? Or how to pump up the "non-prom king/queen" kids with low self-esteem? etc.
Instead, you are the same as those you (failed to) skewer.
Had an upskirt assgrab happen on saturday night, i feel ya bella! ''making a move'' isn't always 'brave'. it can pesky, sometimes downright aggressive, and rarely desired by the other party.
Oh for fucks sake. Its a commercial about a CAR and the CAR giving the kid confidence to kiss the girl he (apparently) always wanted to. Its is NOT about sexual assault. It promoted nothing other then Audi's are fucking awesome. Not that every man driving one is going to rape people.
Jesus, is this really what our god damn society has come to? Now I Im going to hear that "Audi promoted the raping of women".
Fuck it I give up on this human race. Ya'll need to lighten up and stop bitching.
I'm very much using my freedom of speech here and calling you all uptight bitches. Get a fucking grip.