Tag Archives: daily-practices

And so the green movement is being marketed to men. Or so Audi pretends in their Superbowl ad for their TDI Diesel (which can be converted to a biodiesel if you have a station in your home town). Ya know, I like that Audi makes TDI’s. I do. I hate this ad. While on the surface it almost looks like a PSA that educates about the basic environmental practices in re: to plastics, battery recycling, composting, styrofoam and water usage; after viewing it I walked away with the odd association of feeling constricted and constrained by doing all of those small daily practices for the environment. What’s up with police state over monitoring my every move? (At least I would have gotten a laugh if they had broken in on a sex seen for some un-green sex practices…that’s SuperBowl Sunday appropriate, no?) Frankly, I walked away with an anti-green feeling and irritation towards anyone between me and my ability to do the basic little things I enjoy in life (like eating, and grocery shopping, and hot-tubbing). Look Audi, go ahead and make your cars, but don’t go and F up all the work that so many environmental organizations have been developing to promote and educate that small changes in every day life can be easy to do and can make a difference. The need for liberation and freedom imprinted in men’s DNA (this we have been taught via car commercials) was finally accomplished by breaking out of the line and driving the open road in Audi’s “green” car. Awesome. So this wasn’t about being green, this was just about a need for speed, and escape from the entrapment of family (perhaps I’m being harsh, perhaps this is really a pro-marriage ad….maybe the real underlying message is If you only had a woman to deal with all of those domestic chores you wouldn’t get stuck in silly entrapments, hence you would ultimately have more opportunity to roam the open road…) Bah. Enough over analyzing. It’s kind of sad that I feel the need to dig deep into this ad to find some underlying messaging. But I offer this act of mindsturbation as a favor to Audi; otherwise all that would be left to say is, 'hey look, there goes Audi greenwashing' (c’mon guys, driving a car is just plain wasteful and harmful to the environment). So do us a favor, stick to selling your cars via the messaging about freedom and liberation that comes with having a car. Leave the environmental messaging to people who..well…care. Believe me, we’ll respect you for it in the morning. added by: leahl