Volkswagen's 'sexist' car ad sparks outrage

An ad by auto giant Volkswagen has sparked outrage online and attracted accusations of sexism for appearing to reinforce gender stereotypes when it comes to interest in cars.

The short clip, which was shared to the German manufacturer’s Twitter account on November 10, features a testimonial from a male customer named Simon who drives a new electric model, the ID.3.

The ad follows Simon as he takes his two young sons to their soccer game where he says his new wheels attracted a lot of interest from ‘all the dads’ at the match.

“First time we drove it to football I had the whole team around the car and all the dads asking me questions!” reads a quote from the tweet.

While Simon’s wife makes a brief cameo in the clip — we don’t see her face nor does she speak — the focus is largely on his male perspective and experience of the vehicle.

Twitter users were quick to call Volkswagen out for appearing to imply that, as one user wrote, “Only dads care about cars”.

“‘All the dads’. Remind me, which century are we in now please?” one user asked before branding the ad an example of “casual #everydaysexism”.

“Yeah mums don't care about cars, they don't even drive,” another added.

Others were simply unimpressed with the hype around electric cars.

“In reality no one really cares about his new electric grey car,” one wrote.

One was just pleased to see the family’s newest edition, a cute puppy named Oreo.

“I was here for the puppy,” they admitted.

Volkswagen has been contacted for comment.

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