Audi of America is jumping on the politically correct bandwagon and running a Super Bowl ad that pushes the “equal pay” lies we hear too often.
The car company’s “Equal Pay” commercial flies in the face of the facts, creates divisions between the sexes, and fails to do what an advertisement should do—make people want to buy the product.
The commercial shows a feisty girl in a drag race with boys as the father narrates, spewing nonsense about how women are devalued in our society.
What do I tell my daughter? Do I tell her that her grandpa’s worth more than her grandma, that her dad is worth more than her mom? Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued less than any man she ever meets? Or maybe I’ll be able to tell her something different.
The commercial ends with “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work. Progress for everyone.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6u10YPk_34&feature=youtu.be
First of all, if Audi isn’t committed to equal pay for equal work already, then its employees have a host of discrimination complaints to file with the EEOC, because there are anti-discrimination laws that protect people from this kind of civil rights violation.
This was a point made on Twitter, forcing the company to defend itself and undermining the message of its own ad.
So, let’s get this straight once and for all. We’re not talking about “equal pay for equal work.” The issue is a “wage gap,” and there is, indeed, a wage gap between men and women in America. You’ll often hear the statistic that women earn 77% of what their male counterparts earn, but this is actually not true. According to Pew, “based on hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers, women earn 84% of what men earn.” This has narrowed from 36% in 1980. For younger women today, the gap is even smaller—93%.
What, then, is the cause of the wage gap? According to Pew, it’s not discrimination, but the fact that “women were more likely to say they had taken career interruptions to care for their family. And research has shown that these types of interruptions can have an impact on long-term earnings.”
Surprise, surprise. The wage gap is caused by women’s choices. Progressives are all about a woman’s right to choose, aren’t they? Well, women, more than men, choose to interrupt their careers to take care of their families.
- 42% of women choose to reduce their hours worked to care for family members compared to 28% of men
- 39% of women choose to take significant amount of time off compared to 24% of men
- 27% of women choose to quit their jobs compared to 10% of men
- 13% of women choose to turn down a promotion compared to 10% of men
Additionally, research shows that women will never make up half of the U.S. workforce because of their personal choices, not because of discrimination.
After decades of strong gains, the share of women in the U.S. labor force has plateaued in recent years. Recently released projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that the female share of the labor force will peak at 47.1% in 2025 and then taper off to 46.3% by 2060, meaning that women will remain a minority of the labor force.
The decline in female labor force participation since 1999 is not solely due to aging and retirement. The participation rate of women ages 25 to 54 has fallen since 2000. The drop has been widespread. Mothers with children younger than 18 are less likely to participate in the labor force now than they were in 2000, particularly less-educated mothers. Some researchers have suggested this may be due in part to changing gender role attitudes. Women without children under 18 and single women are also less likely to participate than they were in the 1990s. The withdrawal of single women from the labor force in part reflects that more of them are going to school.
This is the truth about the wage gap, but instead of being honest with its customers, Audi is promoting misinformation in the name of “progress.” Sadly, the only thing happening as a result of this kind of feminist propaganda is greater divisions between the sexes. No doubt, little boys will look at this ad and wonder what all the fuss is about and feel guilty for just being boys. Little girls will watch it and suddenly look at all men with suspicion. After all, they’re being told that men think they aren’t as valuable as boys. As a result, a socially imposed victim mindset will be developed in the young and reinforced in older women who’ve bought into the lie.
In a society that is already disrupted by hostility and distrust, the last thing we need are political lies being peddled for a buck. Little girls are respected and valued as much as boys in our society. A case can even be made that boys are the ones being devalued, especially in education, which has become decidedly female-centric.
And what of this issue of value? Since when is a woman’s “value” as a human being determined by how much money she makes? This is the twisted mindset of the feminist Left. They put their value, not on their femininity, their role as mothers or wives or even as simply being good people, but on how much they are like a man or how well they compete with men.
The evidence is clear that women earn less because they choose to take care of their families, but feminists don’t want to admit this because they don’t value women taking care of their families. So who are the ones really devaluing women here?
Companies—and there are many—that buy into this progressive propaganda are making a big mistake. Audi should ask Bud Light about how profitable it is to dive into the politicized pool. Budweiser dumped its ad campaign that featured Amy Schumer and Seth Grogan after it witnessed a decline in sales.
Those ads addressed topics like gender identity and wage gaps, but it didn’t work out so well for Bud Light. When asked about campaigns moving forward, a senior marketing executive said they’d be focusing on cans with NFL team logos and putting “more focus on sports, where we have had considerable success in the past.”
Of course, Anheuser-Busch couldn’t resist deviating from that goal when it came to its Budweiser brand. Its always-anticipated commercial for this year’s Super Bowl will focus on immigration.
Ironically, Budweiser, was sold in 2008 to a multinational company based in Belgium. So much for “America’s beer”—not a winning message for Budweiser at this time, given many Americans’ concerns about foreign-controlled businesses and jobs going overseas—one of the main issues that got Donald Trump elected. It’s also ironic that Budweiser is marketing itself as truly “American,” when its big-beer foreign bosses are using every strategy and regulation they can to crush the real American breweries—craft beers.
Maybe Budweiser thinks it’s too big to fail and can run commercials like these, but if it has learned anything from Bud Light, the company must know it’s a risk. Businesses often come out on the losing end of promotions that are generated by political correctness and the pet interests of their employees.
As Lisa B. Nelson, CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council, has written, “When employees’ political agendas impede the employer’s ability to be successful or profitable, there will be negative consequence for the company.”
For industry leaders, donating to progressive organizations in the hope of earning good will is like paying ransom to blackmailers in the hope they will be satisfied and stop. Progressive agitators will never be satisfied, and the more support they get, the more they will use it against their misguided supporters.
Exactly true. There will always be some political scheme progressives are pushing because they need continual conflict requiring “government solutions.” It would serve companies much better to reject the Leftist agenda and stick with what their customers really want and need. Shelve the politically correct progressive campaigns that hurt businesses and create deep and lasting divisions in the civil society. Instead, do what’s morally and economically correct. That’s best for the company and best for America.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member