Mildly entertaining.Ironic, accusing the asian male dad of stereotyping a white guy, when in fact white men have created very malicious media stereotypes of asian men -- which often denigrate asian male relationships with asian women, and with women in general.

I have written to VW regarding this insulting commercial on Asian men. I am sure VW heard me but nevertheless, dismissed me.The overwhelming pairings of fluze, submissive, or dragon lady Asian females with White men on the mass media is completely intolerable. Any self respecting Asian man should boycott VW for this disgusting message.

There's something in these ads that I found troubling that I couldn't quite put my finger on for a while. There's a lot going on here, but I'll focus on what didn't sit well with me. Asian woman-white man stereotype aside, it seems that what VW is really doing is co-opting the language and message of the civil rights movement to promote the idea that a car is a much more crucial indicator of individual identity than all other distinguishing features like race (hence the yoga ad's privileging of the Jetta rather than the man's race)--even while disavowing this position.If they were really trying to deny that Jetta owners shouldn't be stereotyped or identified by their cars, they wouldn't have concluded with statistics that create and instantiate the stereotype in the first place. Let's be honest, how strong are the associations that people have with Jetta's? Certainly not as strong as, say, associations between Hummers and large pick-ups with manly-men.The irony lies in the fact that, in setting up the stereotype of Jetta-owners as hikers and experts in yoga the advertisers clearly seem to be trying to appeal to a (stereotypically) young, urban, liberal demographic.The inclusion of racially diverse people is clearly part of this pandering strategy. (When was the last time you saw a non-white person in a commercial for a Ford pick-up or a Hummer?)This supposedly tongue-in-cheek play on racial stereotyping by "turning it on its head," however, in fact does nothing of the sort. Instead it appropriates and dilutes civil rights messages and pretends, however winkingly, that we're living in a post-race world, one that evinces the opinion "We're tired of all this racial inequality talk! Can't we just call the problem fixed and move on with it?"--an opinion that fits squarely within a conservative viewpoint all the while exploiting and subverting a liberal sensibility and real liberal values.

It looks like this particular advertisement is another example of a trend of consumerization of counterculture, other examples of which would be Nike shoe commercials with the Beatles' "Revolution" playing in the background and the commercial (I forget for which product) which showed Martin Luther King in Washington speaking to an empty audience.In this case, it seems almost inevitable that advertisers would turn to such a strategy. After all, the Volswagen beetles and buses, like Converse sneakers, have become cultural icons and one would expect advertisers to take advantage of this fact, try to strengthen these associations and appeal to groups of people who buy their products.Appearances can be deceptive. While Volkswagens may be associated with peace and love in the minds of many, they also happen to be the brainchild of a certain Adolf Hitler, who concieved of them as affordable transportation for the Master Race (http://members.tripod.com/~Propagander2/index-6.html); likewise, those of you who also watched last night's interview with Prussian Blue might have noted that the girls were wearing black Converse sneakers. I say this not to disparage these products, but to point out how fickle and ephemeral such associations are and how little grounding product images can have in reality. Given this state of affairs, I hardly find it surprising that an advertisement of this genre would be a mish-mash of racial stereotypes and appeal to liberal sensibilities. As another example of the disconection between advertising illusion and reality, consider the fact that, background music nonwithstanding, most revolutionaries boycott Nike as a particularly egregious instance of an ancien regime factory.What I find particularly disconcerting about this genre of advertising is not so much this rift with reality nor even the co-opting of the language of liberation for lucre, but the subtle and insiduous way in which it trivializes those movements and undercuts motivations. Listen long enough to them and you might come away with the curious impression that protesting is a fun passtime, political views are a matter of fashion, and alternative culture is largely about buying the right products and listening to the right music --- in the 60's it was fashionable to burn flags, in the 00's it is stylish to wave them; the peace sign bumper stickers have given way to more hawkish styles this season. While it is true that some people might become involved in progressive movements for frivolous reasons (such as, say, a lover trying to impress an activist), for most it is a matter of deep conviction and/or a sincere attempt to improve oppressive conditions. Likewise, alternative culture is not about being fashionable with an in-crowd but about breaking away from the abuses and restrictive mindsets of the old society to create a new society based on freedom and equality.In its own way, insinuating that activism is a mere sport for pleasure and cutting radical rhetoric down to feel-good platitudes can be as counter-revolutionary as alleging that activists are really traitors moved by alterior motives and silencing them outright. While, on the surface, it would seem that progressivism is being celebrated, at a deeper level, a crucial part of the message is being deleted. What is lost in the translation to platitudes is the observation that part of the reason that our world does not resemble utopia is because of specific abuses which need to be opposed even if this means leaving comfort zones and confronting vested interests. Remove this component, round off the sharp edges, and what was orginally a burning call to action can become a soothing sedative, lulling listeners into a false sense that all is right with the world and drowning the cries of the oppressed amidst a sentimental celebration of past victories.While I typically regard this sort of silliness in advertisements more as a source of amusement than alarm, I consider it a more serious matter when I see such attitudes spreading to other contexts. Let me illustrate this with two examples. First, consider the last presidential election. To me, the fact that a former outspoken critic of war, a leader of Veterans for Peace, would support the current war seemed like an anomaly begging for an explanation. While I don't think it necesarrily impossible for someone to hold such divergent views about a past war and a present war without being self-contradictory or hypocritical, I do think that a discordance of this magnitude would require careful and detailed accounting. Moreover, I thought that most of the public, not to mention the opposition party, would see the matter likewise and grill the candidate accordingly. Instead, I was surprised to see that, rather than pestering John Kerry to explain exactly why his response to Vietnam differed so drastically from his response to Afghanistan, people seemed content with "that was the sixties, this is now" and didn't care to inquire further.Second, there was the coverage of the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in the mainstream media. I took umbrage about the manner in which demonstrators seemed to be dismissed as kids who had listened to too much Rage Against the Machine. While it is the case that the band did play at the protest and likely many first learned about the issue of globalization from the band, I would also suspect that the reason that fans turned out to the protest was that, after learning about the issue, they came to similar conclusions as the band members and decided to join them in the demonstration. It doesn't need to be mentioned that this picture of the protest leaves out the trade unionists, clergy, and others who were also in attendance. Rather, the impression given is that, in the United States, as in Fahvergnugenland, protests are some sort of picnic for progressives and that a bunch of fans who came down to the picnic to hear their favorite band got rowdy and had to be escorted away by the police.

While it is true that some people might become involved in progressive movements for frivolous reasons, for most it is a matter of deep conviction and/or a sincere attempt to improve oppressive conditions.Thanks for saying this. Blogs have also been dismissed as fringe, angry and irrelevant.

While it is true that some people might become involved in progressive movements for frivolous reasons, for most it is a matter of deep conviction and/or a sincere attempt to improve oppressive conditions.Thanks for saying this. Progressive blogs have also been dismissed as fringe, angry and irrelevant.