Is Kate Upton’s Mercedez Benz ad for the Super Bowl just too racy?

Christopher Koulouris: About author bio at bottom of article.

January 23, 2013

Depending on whom you ask Kate Upton‘s new ad for Mercedez Benz to be featured during the upcoming Super Bowl is either too racy or too tame. Too tame cause it doesn’t show enough skin.

That said some critics are lambasting the ad for its conspicuous attempt to sexualize and objectify women, never mind its patriarchal theme that a woman can always be had and impressed by a real man who has the heft to acquire a ~~dildo~~ Mercedez for the utilitarian wet dream.

Offers a spokesperson for the Parents Television Council:

‘This ad [reinforces] for millions of wives, daughters and sisters across the country that you use your sex appeal to get what you want.

‘If anything, this ad proves that we’ve regressed rather than progressed over the last several years. ‘

That said some who have seen the preview of the ad have gone on to pan the ad because of its failure to show enough skin, or depict Upton in a skimpy wet t shirt washing the car. The type of stuff that young men’s wet dreams are made of.

The ad depicts Upton suggesting she is about to get on with the task of washing the vehicle at hand but rather as the camera cuts the visage of football players are seen doing the hard grunt who look on with open mouths as Upton suggestively motions to a spot the players have missed.

Tells Charlie Warzel at Adweek to ABC News:

‘People will always try to push the envelope,

‘But at the end of the day, they’re going to want to make this sexually suggestive but also family friendly, and there’s a real balance there.’

Reflects yahoo: While sexism in advertising is an old story, one reason for such a heightened reaction in this case may be the blatantly, almost old-school sexy style of the ad, according to Wheelock College sociology and women’s studies professor Gail Dines.

“Panning the body like that is something that belonged in media a while ago,” Dines, the co-author of Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Critical Reader, told Yahoo! Shine. “It’s so clearly turning her into an object. It’s a more traditional, old-fashioned sexism, one where the male gaze is clearly in charge.” Sexism in ads these days, she added, is typically more nuanced, with women acting as self-objectifiers who are “internalizing the male gaze.”

Dines, whose newest book is Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, likens the whole setup, execution and obvious symbolism of the Mercedes ad to a scene out of any classic adult film—which may be why it’s making even some men squirm.

And then there were the following comments on the web which caught my eye as well:

Just wanted to point out: if they showed a man standing around while four females were washing the car, feminists would complain that it’s sexist. Double standard.

This was so cheesy and horrible…like a bunch of middle school kids put it together. Fail for Mercedes.

How come the guys aren’t half naked and bouncing around and blowing bubbles? Women buy cars too!