Assvertising

[Content Note: Lack of boundaries.]

What in the shit is this commercial?


Video Description: A young white man and a young white woman sit at a small round table at a restaurant. A male voiceover says: "Love drama? Go on a first date." The man on the date pulls out from under the table a hand-puppet that looks exactly like the woman. "My passion is puppetry," he tells her. Close-up on her face as it falls. The shot cuts wide again as the man starts making out with the puppet. "I think we're done here," says the woman, who then gets up and leaves. "Hate drama?" says the male voiceover, as the scene cuts to the woman at a dealership getting keys to a new car (while still wearing her first-date dress). "Go to cars-dot-com. Research, price, find. Only cars-dot-com helps you get the right car without all the drama." The end.

This advert is terrible for about a dozen different reasons, not least of which is that it doesn't even make any goddamned sense, but the thing I hate most about it is its reliance on the increasingly popular designation as "drama" any creepy or outright abusive behavior that a man directs at a woman. Or, often, her reaction to it.

That's not "drama." (Trauma, maybe.) And it's not the equivalent of being inconvenienced by less user-friendly car hunting sites.

The thing is, I'm guessing that the advertiser was hoping that women would find this "creepy first date" scene reminiscent of male car salesmen who can be pushy, aggressive, condescending, rude, and disrespectful of boundaries with female car shoppers, while the scene would simultaneously serve to disguise a commentary on men's very typical hostility for women's boundaries so as not to offend any male viewers who might see themselves in something less "hilarious" than a dude making out with a puppet of his date.

And there's nothing I find more contemptible than an advertiser who wants to reach out to women while protecting men's delicate fee-fees. Especially because the attempt is always gross. Case in point.