Yep that's about the experience I remember having growing up, when my mom (single mother, two daughters) would go to buy a car. I'm not in an income bracket to buy a new car yet so thus far in my life I've dealt with individuals when buying cars.

The saddest part about this commercial is that it's true!

I found it a lot funnier when they told me that thing was a Badger :) I'm slow today.

Whenever my partner and I have shopped for cars (sadly, 4 times in the 10 year span we've been together) I generally let the person make an ass of themselves galling all over him and when it's time to talk numbers, he usually pulls some "babe, want me to get your some coffee while you figure this out? And throws the person through a loop and a half. It's fun, but sad it's stereotypical.

The worst we had was when we were newly pregnant and I wanted a station wagon (not a minivan or an SUV, thanks). The guy just kept turning to my partner saying "she doesn't REALLY want a station wagon, right?" pointing us to the SUVs and other cars. At that point my patner said "yeah, thanks for showing us what we don't want, jerk" and we walked off the lot.

Oh hallelujah!! A clever, non-sexist advertisement!

Who thought of this? I want to go hug them.

This runs in my market - the entire campaign is funny and fab!

Yaay! This is one commercial I wouldn't mind interrupting my shows! =D Finally, one commercial out there without a bullshit subliminal message or just plain bull! (Did anyone see that one Red Bull commercial with the "studious" college boy and the "college slut"? Ugh, way to stereotype women.)

U.S. companies making commercials should take notes on this commercial. Srsly.

My mom loves to tell the story where she and my dad car shopped, she asked questions, and the salesmen answered them to my father. Like she didn't fucking exist. It's been 15 years and she still goes on and on about how she hates that place. Love her.

NICE!!!

Love it! LMAO

Ooh yeah. I wonder how many of us have these stories? Reminds me of a few years ago, when my stepmother went to buy a car from a lot...she had made arrangements to pick her choice up a few days later, they had sold it to someone else because, and I quote, "We didn't think it was right for you." Huh?

lol @ Johnson Automotive.

hells yea! I get so excited about anti-sexist advertising. its not even funny. There is one of those billboards down the street from me that says something like teach your son how to treat and respect women and EVERY time I go past that I just smile so much. Yey!

I would drive to NC to buy my next car from them, just for this ad.

My mom helped me buy my first "big people" car this summer, and we went from lot to lot for a few weeks because we refused to be treated like that. We finally bought my car from a female salesperson. It wasn't BECAUSE she was a woman, but because she was the first salesperson to treat us with basic respect.

That commercial is perfect!

I really, REALLY needed to see this today! There is some good in the world. :)

I wish this ran in Manhattan. But I can just find it on here, of course. I'm interested in the comments that might be below it on Youtube though.

The commercial's funny, but I don't really think it's anti-sexist. It's playing the stereotype for laughs, yes, but it's also telling the consumer "Come to our lot. Buy from us. We're better than the other guys because we say we treat women as informed consumers".

What I want the commercial to tell us is "Do they deliver on that assertion?"

I'd say the commercial might be considered sexism neutral. Its presentation is anti-sexist, but I want to know if the company lives up to their promise.

If I ever buy a car again I want to buy it from them.

When I was buying my last car I went with my dad (hey - he was paying). The salesperson pretty much talked to him. Luckily I knew what I wanted so we didn't have to do much shit-shooting with salespeople.

It's anti-sexist because it challenges sexism. It's calling out sexist behavior, showing how wrong it is and how the premise that women are superficial and uniformed about cars is wrong.

I know, Geek. What keeps me from embracing it as anti-sexist is that it's a commercial. Its purpose is to sell you something. In this case, that "something" is the idea that the salespersons are not sexist badgers, like they are at "that other lot".

As I said above, I wonder what the salespeople are really like.

Why cant more commercials be like this! I'm so happy I'm majoring in mass communications!

My mother recounted an experience when she went car shopping and the seller only asked her whether she liked the color or not. She also had a seller tell her that one of the cars was 'good for women' because it had little pictures underneath the hood.

I choose not to frequent any car lots where the seller is a sexist tripe. The last comment I heard when I was out car shopping was when the seller told me 'alot of women like this style of car.'

Where do men learn this demeaning crap? Cant parents of boys evolve!!?

We didn't think it was right for you."

Wasnt that illegal?

"What keeps me from embracing it as anti-sexist is that it's a commercial. Its purpose is to sell you something. In this case, that "something" is the idea that the salespersons are not sexist badgers, like they are at "that other lot".

As I said above, I wonder what the salespeople are really like."

Rebecca C, I think the point here is that the *commercial* is anti-sexist. It might be playing into capitalism [which I am not a big fan of], but the commercial suggests that it's stupid and unfair to talk down to women who are interested in buying "traditionally male" products. It is capitalizing on the stereotype that car salespeople treat women as if they are stupid [which I believe is largely true, and I feel like it's pretty fair game at this point ;P], and that is an anti-sexist message to promote.

Whether their actual company and customer service is also anti-sexist is a whole different issue. I, too, would like to know whether this promotion of treating women like valid customers is something that they follow through on, but that doesn't make the commercial itself any less anti-sexist. I'd like to hope so!

Comparing sexist men to animals, while not very original, is still funny.

Yes, gopher, that whole "Wasn't right for you" thing was made illegal.

I haven't bought a car yet, but I have had situations like this when I go to buy a computer. The sales people try to talk to my fiance and not me. He does happen to know more about computers than I do, but it's MY computer, talk to ME. I'm the one with the money, after all!

My fiance got a taste of what it's like when we were out looking at reception locations for our wedding last week. The woman showing us the place only asked for my name and directed all of her commentary to me, despite the fact that a reception location should be a joint decision. So now he *really* gets why I get mad when I'm ignored (he's always understood it in the hypothetical sense - I wouldn't be marrying him otherwise!).

I needed a jumpstart recently, and the guy who helped me seemed so amazed that I knew how to attach the jumper cables.

This commercial is such an improvement over that hummer commercial that tries to make a "girl power" statement. I think it was something about a woman who's kid gets picked on in the playground and the mother of the other kid ignores it and lets the first mom deal with it. So the first mom goes out and gets a hummer and it says "get your girl on." That commercial pissed me off in so many ways. It totally plays on the freudian myth of "penis envy."

but I have had situations like this when I go to buy a computer.

Arrrggh, my dad once had a computer guy come over to our house to show us how to install some software that had a lot of custom settings on it. My dad couldn't be there, but he specifically told me to see how it was done so I could show him when he got home, as I've always been pretty good with computers. Well, Terry the Computer Ass gets to our house, and my younger brother who really doesn't like computers was also home. I told Terry that he was supposed to show me how the installation would work, and he just looked at me like I was nuts and started talking to my brother. Basically, I ended up standing behind both of them and trying to see with my crap-ass vision as he went through a dry run of installing the software and explaining it to my brother, who made it pretty plain that he wasn't really interested. Seriously, in the entire time Terry was there, he did not say ONE FUCKING WORD to me. And bizarrely enough, his wife is also a computer tech, so you'd think he would know better.

(Oh, and for the record, my dad got in a fight with Terry a few months later, so I'm now his official tech support person.)

One thing that always gets me about how women get treated by car dealers and tech guys is that it runs so contrary to what most think is the law of capitalism -- women make up more than half the population, for chrissakes! Wouldn't it make good sense to try getting our business? I don't know whether prejudice and hate is simply stronger than the desire for money, or whether these guys know that allowing women to feel comfortable in technical settings would lead to more women entering those careers, hence more competition for them. But seriously, I'm pretty sure there will be enough tech jobs in the coming years for anybody who's qualified and then some. Jesus.

reminds me of the time i bought a game at gamestop, and at the checkout counter the guy asked "you do know this is for a gamecube, right? does your boyfriend have a gamecube? it's a small blue cube, by nintendo" seriously he sounded like he was talking to a child. what kind of idiot goes to buy a video game and doesn't check the console? and by the way, the game was FOR ME.