Fiat celebrates International Women's Day with an ancient sexist joke

Oh, Fiat...

The text reads "Fiat celebrates women: For one day only, the third, fourth and fifth gears are included for the normal price".

My friend and Osocio colleague Marc shared this via Facebook, via the Italian language Viralmente page. I was a little suspicious, so I did some searching. While there is no evidence of the post on Fiat's Italian page now, this screencap is still in the "posts by others" section:

You don't need to speak Italian to understand the outrage. Italian women and men are not amused by the 1950s-era joke about women's driving skills. They took it down and replaced it with this:

The car manufacturer has been accused of sexism before. Last year, they personified their sportier models as sexy (and slightly crazy) Italian women. They even managed to get ranked as the "second most sexist Super Bowl ad of the year" by Fem2.0. They even managed to draw fire from radical women's group Femen by appropriating their semi-nude protest tactics to sell cars in Brazil.

Which is odd, because recently Fiat has made a big effort in the UK to attract certain women drivers by empathizing with their demographic. Remember the Mother Hood?

Get out of the Cinquecento...

Fiat "celebrates" modern motherhood

Adfreak recently featured this ad from Krow Communications for Fiat UK, featuring an awkwardly-rapping British mum:



As an obvious play for the "mommy blogger" set, it's pretty amusing with its self-deprecating references to nursing, children's filth, oversharing, and an unsatisfying sex life. All it's missing is the constant references to wine dependance, but this is a car ad after all.

AF's Rebecca Cullers points out how there is no man present, which may be a purposeful appeal to both spiritually independent and single mothers. Besides which, she adds, "how this MILF fits herself, Dad and those three kids into the four-seat Fiat 500L is a total mystery."

Natural birth advocates may be annoyed with the casual episiotomy reference, but at least she's breastfeeding (or at least, "expressing").

Femen furious with Fiat for filching their image

The infamous Ukrainian anarcho-feminist movement, known for protesting topless agains prostitution, corruption and misogyny, now have a new target: admen.

Via the Femen Faceboook page:

Fiat dishonestly uses image of femen activists in advertising campaign to promote their product at the Latin American market. Brazilian advertisers use recognizable attributes of the women's movement femen in their video without our consent. We believe such action against us is unfair.

Have a look for yourself (it's in Portuguese):



It sure seems "inspired" by Femen, who also have an active chapter in Brazil. In addition to co-opting their concept, the ad also wimps out on the nudity, then undermines their ideals by having them women gleefully jump into the man's car at the end.

This wouldn't be the first time a grassroots, anti-system movement was co-opted by the very "Man" they oppose. But note that Femen don't seem to be attempting any legal action, just social complaint.

What do you think of this?

Cars are women, women are crazy...

And crazy Italian cars are... supermodel Catrinel Menghia?

A new series of Fiat 500 Arbath ads was just produced by Sapient Nitro. The first two are pretty typical "hot woman/ hot car" mindless series of beauty shots.

But the third... well...



When Ms. Menghia walks up to the photographer and caresses him, she asks (in Italian) "wanna go for a spin?" After he beats her in a road race, she slaps him and screeches "just who do you think you are?"

And then she flirts again, because Italian women are pazze that way.

Of course, if you follow advertising (or the NFL) you'll recognize this approach from Fiat's 2012 Super Bowl ad:



That one was ranked the second most sexist Super Bowl ad of the year by Fem2.0, with the comment:

"This ad not only objectifies a woman’s body, it hyper-sexualizes a car as a woman’s body. Fiat asserts women and cars are interchangeable. Duh! A fast car is like a fast woman and they’re both commodities men want. So men can “own” women…you know, cause they’re just objects (oh, I mean sex objects) after all. But this ad goes a step further. The Italian-speaking Romanian model Catrinel Menghia slaps the man for leering at her as she’s bent over. In reality, women face leering, ogling and street harassment on a regular basis. But in the ad, she shifts from anger to sexuality and quickly starts seducing him. Contributing to rape culture, Fiat’s ad associates and normalizes violence with sexual arousal."

In the new ad, she's the one who initiates the sexual play (as well as ending/inflaming it with violence) and it doesn't actually say that she's an object, but it's not much better than its predecessor.

This is how they sell Italian cars in Argentina #FdAdFriday

With boobs.

Well, that's no surprise. But what is baffling is the way this ad (via Copyranter) spends so little time talking about cars, and so much time talking about boobies. Plus, its pro-surgery, anti-natural slant is pretty damn offensive:



The only thing I did like about the ad was the way it visually referenced one of the most referenceable movies of all time.
(The music is more like Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me" from the title sequence.) Related: This is how they sell Italian sports cars in Germany

F'd Ad Fridays: Hot little Italian number

This Fiat ad has been making the rounds of Copyranter, Adrants, etc., to a mixed reaction.



My reaction is not mixed at all. I hate it. It's offensive to both men and women, and manages to negatively (or positively, if you're a male masochist) stereotype Italians while it's at it.

Steve Hall disagrees:

"It's not offensive in an way, shape or form. It's just a true statement of fact: men are perplexed, dumbfounded and all out distracted when in the presence of a hot woman or a hot car. The ad is a dead on depiction of men and their relationship to women and cars. And that's just the way it is."

I guess I've just never felt a sexual attraction to a car. And I don't find the idea of being with a clearly insane women all that hot, either. I guess I'll be turning in my man card now. But I think this ad is stupid.

Also, the Cinquecento is a small car.