An Audi commercial in China compared women to used cars

It didn’t go well

Original story by The Washington Post’s Amy B Wang.

An Audi commercial that aired in China opens with a bride and groom about to take their vows. But the mother of the groom frantically interrupts, rushing up the aisle to “inspect” her would-be daughter-in-law.

With a stare, the woman pinches the bride’s nose, pulls back the bride’s ear and then examines the inside of her mouth.

The mother-in-law even studies the bride’s chest area.

The commercial then cuts away to footage of a red Audi sedan zipping along an empty highway, as a man’s voice declares: “An important decision must be made carefully.”

An animation encourages viewers to visit a website selling “Audi-approved” secondhand cars.

“Only with an official certification can you rest easy,” a male voice-over says.

The response to the ad was less than stellar.

Audi’s standing with China, before the ad

Audi, which is owned by the Volkswagen Group, had “virtually created China’s luxury car market” more than two decades ago, according to Automotive News, but in recent years has struggled to ward off competition from brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Bloomberg News reported earlier this year that Audi’s China sales in January had dropped 35 percent from the year before.

Responses to the ad after it aired

• On Weibo, a Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter, people criticized the commercial as sexist and “disgusting.”
• Several users called on Audi to apologize, while some urged a boycott of the automaker.
• “I am not a woman and I am disgusted. I’ll turn to Cadillac,” another Weibo user wrote.
• A Weibo page devoted to the topic has received more than 200,000 views, and videos of the commercial on the microblogging site have been shared thousands of times.
• One Weibo user was insulted that the company had targeted its Chinese market with a commercial that made assumptions about relationship dynamics in the country:

“The annoying thing about Audi’s used-car ad, besides its objectification of women, is that it thinks Chinese customers deserve only commercials like this,” the user wrote. “It assumes romantic relationships for Chinese men and women are just like this: dominated by the mother-in-law, controlled by the male and with a passive female. … Would Audi air such a discriminatory commercial in Europe or the U.S.?”

How Audi is responding to the criticism

The ad was pulled after outrage ensued.

Representatives for Audi did not respond to questions sent by email Tuesday morning. An Audi spokesman told the South China Morning Post that the automaker was looking into the commercial and that it had been produced by a joint-venture partner.