E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe Parents' Television Council is outraged over a Mercedes Benz Super Bowl ad featuring model Kate Upton that they say reinforces the notion of using sex appeal to get what you want. The video has attracted nearly 3 million views on YouTube in only two days.
A new Super Bowl commercial featuring supermodel Kate Upton washing a Mercedes Benz has critics complaining that the only clean part of the clip is the car.
The Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that opposes harmful and negative messages targeted to children, has criticized the spot for its objectification of women.
“It’s not the raciest ad that’s ever aired during the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t mean it is just harmless fun, either," Melissa Henson, PTC’s Director of Communications and Public Education, told TODAY.com in a statement. "This ad isn’t selling cars, it’s selling sexual objectification, and reinforcing 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. This is not an empowering message for women or girls. It doesn’t encourage respect, achievement, or any values beyond the purely superficial.”
A 90-second trailer for the commercial has already been viewed more than three million times on YouTube since being released on Tuesday. It starts with the message, "Kate Upton washes the new Mercedes CLA in slow motion," and features the 2012 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girl blowing soap off her hands and posing as sultry music plays in the background. Three men in football jerseys and jeans are then shown slowly washing the car with their mouths agape at Upton. The clip ends with her inspecting their work and saying "you missed a spot,'' before walking away.
The commercial follows in the footsteps of other racy Super Bowl spots of the past, including several GoDaddy.com spots in recent years featuring NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.
NASCAR driver Danica Patrick has done several racy Super Bowl ads for Go Daddy in the past few years, including this one from last year's game.
Read more:
Zoo says Super Bowl ad will harm chimps
Best Super Bowl commercials of all time?
See the Super Bowl ad featuring our TODAY anchors
Leave a Comment:
The sad truth is it only takes one accident, such as walking into an airplane propeller, to completely ruin her self-worth and take her off the radar. Only neanderthals pay any attention to chasing a ball back and forth across a field and the valueless marketing ploys that ride in the back seat. So shallow.
It's not racy. It's just stupid. This woman isn't all that pretty and her legs are ugly. And most people who watch football don't drive Mercedes anyway.
Seems like a bunch of prudes out there. Sex appeal is used for everything with any creature having a beating heart. Mercedes isn't the first to try this and by the way that is a nice looking car. Sex sells. Always has and always will. The ad appears pretty tame. Television only grabs attention through basic desires. The desire to be entertained in the usual ways. I agree that shows go overboard sometimes. Years ago when I first watched Two and Half Men I thought it was trashy with sex as the main topic. But I admit I have been thoroughly entertained and enjoy watching those repeats. I Love Lucy was certainly smarter writing during it's day and true to comedy. But times have changed. If you don't like ads with young girls with big breasts then find something else to do.
I find this ad to be incredibly offensive. I had to watch it 35 times to be sure, but yeah, color me offended.
Maybe this is why they want to allow woman in combat. They can distract the enemy.
Sex sells? Who would have thought!
Sheesh -- sex has been selling stuff as long as there has been advertising....
Basically sex will sell as long as men think not with their brain but with their other "head"
Television is not a life essential...and there's not much on there worth watching. Our family gave up on TV years ago...and we've never regretted it.
Yet you're compelled to comment about a television ad. You and Slim_Pickens up there should form a club or something. You could meet in the back of a Barnes & Noble, sip lattes, and trade stories on how culturally inferior the rest of us riff-raff have become.
There is nothing wrong with perfection
Does anyone really think we have evolved past objectifying women in this country? Sex is used to sell everything from toothpaste to laundry detergent. If it didn't work, the ad companies wouldn't use it. Consumers have the power to stop it or encourage it. Take the responsibility, America.
if television commercials attract your attention,, then you already have a problem,,,,
No different than the Carl's Jr. commercials!!!! We record our shows and fast forward past all the commercials. Now we don't have to watch any of the Carl's Jr., KY Jelly, etc.... commercials.
No more racy than Two and a Half Men, Carl's Jr.'s or the Victoria's Secret ads.
My probelm with the ad was that it showed her midfriff muffin, which just added to this woman's already odd figure.
Just sayin'.
Really? They are appalled by a sexy commercial but it is ok to show video game commercials where the active objective of the is to shoot as many people as you can while sustaining multiple injuries that you need to "wait" 15 seconds to recover from. I'm much more put off by the commercials for the video games. It sets a precedent that violence against people is ok but sex is not.
I can talk to my two boys about the idea of women being objectified in order to sell products and whether or not that is effective. However, even though I can discuss my abhorrence to glorified violence, I can't take away the visuals of the "cool" new game where shooting people is considered the goal.
The talking sports heads are trying to start a competition thread between Jim and John. John was the oldest and Jim followed him around as a kid and respected his brother................dinner at the Harbaugh household..............well it will be just fine as long as the media keeps out of trying to make something from nothing...............Go team who shows up to play........Win the Day to quote Coach Chip Kelly!
As someone who works in the biz I have a more fundamental question. How will Mercedes determine this ad will be successful? Looks like just another "brilliant" creation from a 20-something creative person at an ad agency, that won't get much ad recall beyond a week, and will have very little long-term impact, for a ton of cost.
I feel the purpose of the Super Bowl is to watch and discuss football not to watch scantily clad actresses. It causes me to wonder about her sanity. Just remember that beauty or sexy pictures don't last.t
Kate is getting chubby!
Here's a lonk to a poem I wrote ten years ago pertaining to this type of advertising.
<a href= "">First</a>
www.davidual.faithweb.com/davidual/public_html/poetry%20page/first.htm (Copy / paste this link into uour browser if the other link doesn't appear. )
The point is: the object of the advertisement is just a car folks. Will Mercedes Benz have Kate Upton come back in twenty years and do the same commercial for their product? If you percieve the answer to that question to be 'NO' then this commercial is just really air headed and exploitive.
To the dummy that says this organization complaining is liberal. Think again pal. It's the right wing Christian Republicans that don't like sex. At least publicly, while in private they are off fiddlin' and diddlin' with god only knows who and what!
What's wrong with the ad? She's dressed, her shorts aren't as short as I've seen on others, her cleavage is even not that bad... she's blowing bubbles off her hand and tousling her hair... what on earth is the big deal? I'm a woman and I found it frankly boring. If they were going for racy, they missed the mark, and it was just silly.