".jdb." (brockmjd)
07/27/2015 at 11:00 • Filed to: miata, commercials, sexism, murder, buried in the desert
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".jdb." (brockmjd)
07/27/2015 at 11:00 • Filed to: miata, commercials, sexism, murder, buried in the desert | 1
| 10 |
It’s been a while since I’ve posted much on Oppo (or anywhere. Been busy.). But this rubs me the wrong way EVERY. DAMN. TIME. I see it. For most of the commercial, it’s not awful (sure, we can unpack the sexism, the privilege, etc. But that’s not why I’m here.)... but the last line “Reminds you of when you were you”.
NO.
The arc of this story isn’t terribly far from my own - early 40s, had a Miata just after college, swapped it for a bigger and more sensible hatch, now driving a minivan with 2 kids in the back. And you know what? I’m still “me”. The last line of the commercial is gross and insulting - like having a family, driving a minivan .... that’s just a distraction; as soon as you can, you need to ditch those leeches and get back into a roadster so you can be “you” again.
Two more things I have to point out: First, look at “Dad” at 0:48. He’s unshaven, pale, unhappy-looking. Things are Not OK. And in the last scene - he’s smiling, but he’s alone. What happened to the wife and kids? The more I look at his face in that 0:48 scene, the more creeped out I get.
OK, one last thing - at 0:33....just nope. I’ve had long hair and driven a Miata. Unless they did something radical to improve in-cabin turbulence since the NA, you DON’T drive or ride in one with hair like that. Put it in a ponytail or a hat or something, otherwise you’re gonna be spending some serious painful time with a brush when you’re done.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> .jdb.
07/27/2015 at 12:17 |
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I didn’t take the commercial that way at all. I took it more as a consolation that somebody having done all the things and gotten all the things in life that popular lore suggests will exact a price “still has it”. “Sure, I’m a dad now, with a house, wife, responsibilities... but I’ve still got my boyish charm and sense of fun *like I did then*.” I don’t think the ad has any malice to it, though it could be seen as deprecating the
real
things in life if in no other way than by comparison. Would it fly better with leaving the kids with the sitter, then going out with the wife? Sure, but then it could sort of be deprecating the having of kids. There’s no way to win cleanly if you’re selling a mid-life crisis car, but that’s what Mazda has to do here, and they haven’t really degraded anything outright.
RallyWrench
> .jdb.
07/27/2015 at 12:21 |
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Marketing as defined by single 20-something hipsters.
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.jdb.
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/27/2015 at 12:33 |
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Even with that reading, the “when you were you” line still specifically bugs me, as it insinuates that the intervening years were “stuff that kept you from yourself”.
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.jdb.
> RallyWrench
07/27/2015 at 12:34 |
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So, so many fedoras in the room where this was hatched.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> .jdb.
07/27/2015 at 12:40 |
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There’s a midlife crisis/crisis of identity thing going on there, to be sure. It would have been better if the theme had tilted more toward proving-that-one-is-still-that-same-guy-to-other-people, rather than saying “I’m a kid again! Whee!” The first means you always were that guy and others might have forgotten. The second says that while with responsibilities, you might not have been.
I think Lincoln and Cadillac have both played with the first to some limited success, but it doesn’t cut to the heart of things and prey on insecurity quite the same.
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.jdb.
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/27/2015 at 12:47 |
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Here’s a twist that would incorporate what you’re saying AND not diminish the “being a dad” role (and yeah, you’d have to do some editing magic to squeeze this into a 60 second commercial...but....) Early in the commercial, we see him courting his lady-friend by making her grin with spirited driving. Middle of the commercial, the daughter is grinning the same way as Dad is driving; end of the commercial, the daughter - now 16 - is driving *her* love interest down the same curvy road.
Call it “a love of driving that spans generations” or something.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> .jdb.
07/27/2015 at 12:53 |
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I think Subaru has done that to an extent, albeit very mawkishly. The trouble there is that it misses the midlife crisis market entirely and has been more tilted toward what a great appliance the Scoob is. Our hypothetical Mazda ad needs the final twist of - after seeing the daughter off - Dad opening the garage door on an ND of his own, he and Mom smiling.
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.jdb.
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/27/2015 at 12:56 |
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Or I just throw my hands up in the air and acknowledge that Mazda is trying to sell their cars to the sort of guys who are in their 40s and think of their families as an impediment.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> .jdb.
07/27/2015 at 13:00 |
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They’ve got to at least try for that demographic - if they don’t, who will? - but they could probably make a “remember when you were young” crisis appeal without going “pff, family”. I think TFritch’s general point is made that an advertising department full of unmarried 20-somethings doesn’t know how to do that.
Rykilla303
> .jdb.
07/28/2015 at 15:46 |
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speak the truth! Newish dad (dec. 2014) here, and i hate how us dads are portrayed in media. ads, movies, tv.