Audi USA addresses gender pay equality in its Super Bowl ad, “Daughter”. The 60-second spot shows a father watching his young daughter participating in a downhill cart race. While she’s clearly enjoying the thrill of the competition (racing against mostly boys), the father wonders about how society will value his daughter as an adult. At the end of commercial, Audi states that the company is “committed to equal pay for equal work.” A 2016 report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee found that women were paid 21% less than men on average.
Audi is walking the equal pay walk, too, at least on this commercial. It hired a female director (Aoife McArdle) for the Super Bowl “Daughter” ad. (McArdle is also the director of the Secret brand deodorant commercial where a young woman in a work bathroom practices asking her boss for equal pay.) While there are only two females on the Audi USA executive team of 14, the advertising agency behind the commercial Venables, Bell & Partners has 5 female executives on its team of 15.
