[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nyr1Ao7iZA[/youtube]
This Valentine’s Day, instead of breaking hearts, Ford is breaking gender norms with their ad titled “Speed Dating”. In their ad, Ford recruits a professional female stunt driver to go on a series of blind dates with unsuspecting men.
While on the date, the stunt driver offers to give her dates a lift in her new 2015 Mustang. Upon first entering the car, her dates clearly pull from the stereotype that “women can’t drive”. Her dates make comments such as, “Should I drive?”, “I could show you a thing or two”, and a few even instruct her on when to switch gears. Little do they know they are in for a big surprise.
During the drive, the stunt driver tries to “turn around” in an empty parking lot. However, instead of turning around she puts the pedal to the metal and reaches speeds of 120mph while doing a series of doughnuts. The guys are clearly surprised at their date’s capabilities and feel that they had wrongly stereotyped her.
Ford is showing the world this Valentine’s Day that women can break out of their gender boxes.
This is the coolest thing I have seen in a really long time! It is awesome to see that a company as large as Ford is branching out to break social gendered norms. Women are typically portrayed as “bad drivers” who should not be behind the wheel. Each guy got into the car with the idea that they were a better driver than she was. It was funny watching the men cringe at how fast she was driving as well at how well she maintained the car. In class we have discussed the idea of social norms that are forced upon genders. Women and men have particular norms that they are expected to fulfill. Women should be reserved, petite, and domestic. Men should be muscular, womanizers, who drinks lots of beer. Ads like this Ford one, demonstrate how we can break out of our social norms and for it to be acceptable.
I really enjoyed watching this! I love whenever stereotypes are broken, and in this case, the fact that a woman was portrayed being “the one taking control” made me feel so happy. Women are usually called the “bad drivers” and “weak”, but this video showed the complete opposite. As you say Sarah, these guys had a big surprise. I think that women are breaking “boxes” more and more often, and that makes me glad.
This is absolutely amazing. I love this video. It’s great to see big companies play off of the gender norms in fun ways like this. It always provides that little reality check for the general public. It’s always refreshing to have the support of a big company like Ford showing people that they should be more aware that everything isn’t as black and white as it seems. The look on each guys face is priceless as they’re shocked with the high speed and stunts, but also shocked at the realisation that this woman wasn’t at all what they had first expected. Hats off to her also as she plays the stereotyped ‘innocent’ and ‘ditzy’ female gender norm perfectly. This really just epitomises how normal it is to have the view of a woman as being a ‘bad driver’ but also ‘weak’ and unable to handle such a powerful muscle car.