Gender Discrimination in Auto Commercials
Auto companies are trying to tell costumers that having a nice car equals status. When you look around you can see that the rich and famous people usually own expensive, nice and new cars. Also, from watching movies, you can see that owing one of these fabulous cars give you sex appeal. For example, in all James Bond movies the main character, Bond, drives the newest, fastest and most luxurious cars, and he always gets the most beautiful girls.
According to Maureen Shaw at Amagazines, women want to find a successful man. Shaw writes: “Online dating sites are filled with women who list “successful” as one of the traits she’s looking for in a man.” (Shaw, 2007) There are many ways for men to show women that they are successful. One particularly easy way to show that you are a successful man is by owning an expensive car. Marketers at the big auto companies have noticed the general fact that being successful equals owning a new car. In commercials, car companies try to show you just how much owing their car will increase your sex appeal. One winning way of showing that is by having beautiful girls in the car commercials. Marketers either show a rich man who drives a fancy car, surrounded by beautiful girls, or just a fancy car with a beautiful girl sitting in it. This way of advertising is shocking and gender discriminating. The scandalous part about it is the development in these car commercials during the last 30 years. The girls in the commercials wear less and less clothes. In some car commercials, the girls are the main attraction, and the car becomes a side character. Basically, many car companies are using women in their
commercials in a discriminating way, particularly Nissan in their commercial for the Nissan Pathfinder.
In the Nissan Pathfinder commercial you don’t see the car they are advertising for. The commercial shows a girl in bikini with a seat belt on for 25 seconds and after that a text comes up saying: “New Nissan Pathfinder- with front independent suspension.” At first, when you look at this commercial you don’t realize that it is a car commercial. My first impression was that it was a bikini commercial. Then I started to wonder what the commercial really was about. The fact that it is an ad for an automobile comes as big surprise.
From a marketer’s point of view this commercial was very successful. There were discussions in media about the ethics and moral values of this commercial. All publicity like that is just what a marketer is dreaming about (Joachimsthaler, 2003). It means that more people get interested in the commercial. For example, people who read about a scandalous commercial in a news paper go online to see what is so scandalous about it. The Nissan Pathfinder commercial didn’t even show the actual car. The only way you could tell that the girl in the commercial was sitting in a car was by the fact that she was wearing a seat belt. Even though you never saw the car in the commercial, this commercial was a great success.
So is it unethical to show women’s breasts to sell cars? Shouldn’t everybody be able to figure out that you don’t actually get the girl in the commercial if you buy the car? There
are two major reasons for why I believe this commercial is unethical. It is gender discriminating and you don’t see the car in the commercial, even though it is a car commercial.
The Nissan commercial is gender discriminating because it shows a girl in bikini. The fact that she does not wear a shirt is what makes it discriminating. The phenomenon of her breast moving is irrelevant in the advertisement of this car. It is just a method from the marketers at Nissan to catch the audience’s attention and to keep the audience watching at the ad. For example, Nissan could easily have put a bag in the front seat of the car, and showed how the bag jumped up and down thanks to the great front suspension, but that would not have caught the audience’s attention. Nonetheless, marketers at Nissan know how the audience will react, so they manipulate the audience in an unethical way. The marketers know that sex sells. According to Angus Loten, sex sells more than ever. Sex has always been a successful way in marketing, but during the recent years more and more companies has understood the power of using sex in marketing (Loten, 2008). By using young, attractive girl in the commercial for the Nissan Pathfinder, Nissan manages to get the audience’s attention.
Nissan, the company that sells Nissan Pathfinders, created this commercial. I believe the target audience is men in the age of 25-65, middle class and upper class. I believe Nissan chose this market segment because it is a relatively expensive car, so they need a target audience with enough money to buy a classy car. I believe the market segment consists of men because it is a girl in bikini in the commercial. The claim Nissan makes is vague, but in the end of the commercial it says: “New Nissan Pathfinder- with front independent
suspension.” According to that text, you can come up with the conclusion that they try to sell their new car, which has really good frond suspension. On the other hand, commercial shows a girl for 25 seconds so if it wasn’t for the text in the end of the commercial, I would think it was a bikini commercial.
There are many different ways to create a successful commercial. An excellent way to create a high-quality commercial is to consider the importance of ethos, pathos and logos. Pathos appeals to the audience's emotions. In this commercial, Nissan definitely use pathos. Seeing a girl in bikini generates emotions for almost everybody. I believe this ad affects different people in different ways. I think you can divide the audience into two groups: one group with people who like the commercial and think it is funny and one group of people who dislikes it. I also believe that more men then women think this is a funny commercial. However, I suppose that most people in the market segment (men 2565) like the ad and think it is entertaining.
The layout of the ad is simple. At first, when you see the girl in bikini the commercial consists of clear and vivid colors. When the text pops up the background is black and the text is white, so it is still a clear and simple layout. The text is big enough to be seen without a problem. Another interesting aspect in this commercial is the background music. It is a happy tone, which reminds me of an old silent movie with Charlie Chaplin. In the old silent movies they always played special kind of music, and then showed texts to tell the audience what will happen. I think Nissan uses the same technique. The music in the Nissan commercial produces a nice feeling, and I believe Nissan chose this music
to make the audience feel relaxed and pleased. In the end of the commercial the company shows a text showing its audience what the commercial is about.
In conclusion, the Nissan Pathfinder Commercial is very well done and effective commercial from a marketer’s point of view. As a matter of fact, many other companies use women to promote the product that they are trying to sell. Why is it wrong for Nissan to do the same?
The Nissan commercial is unethical and gender discriminating. It is true that other companies use the same marketing strategies as Nissan, showing beautiful girls in bikinis to promote their products, but I don’t believe this reality justifies Nissan’s commercial for the Nissan Pathfinder. It is difficult to state how gender discrimination effects how girls in general feel about themselves. However, commercials like this can take control over the way girls see themselves. It can result in high standards that are impossible to live up to for young girls. This can lead to obsessive dieting or even eating disorders. Therefore, I believe that commercials like this should not be allowed in media.
References Loten, Angus. "Why Sex Sells More Than Ever." 10 Jan. 2008 . Shaw, Maureen. "Who Else Wants a Successful Man?" 25 July 2007 . Joachimsthaler, Erich. Harvard Business Review on Marketing. Cambridge: Harvard University, 2003.