Brie Larson is such a feminist that she can’t make a darn car commercial without scolding some corporate jerk for putting down members of her “sisterhood.”
The theme for the new Nissan Sentra ad is “Refuse to Compromise” and of course that means nothing less than, ladies, stop taking marching orders from the jerky male in your life and go out for a test drive with Brie Larson in the latest model of our car line.
This is just the latest in woke corporate advertising. In 2018, Gillette's condescending ad aimed at toxic masculinity annoyed millions of folks and inspired a hefty backlash.
The Nissan ad, which premiered Friday, Mar. 6, begins by depicting a career woman getting the runaround from her white male boss on how he’s “gonna hold on promoting” her this quarter. Of course, the evil boss man tells the news to the young -- and obviously underappreciated -- intrepid employee with an indulgent sneer. You know this guy loves oppressing women.
But little does douchey boss know that this sister’s got an ally in Brie Larson, who pulls up the car to the pair eating lunch and yells at the woman, “Drop the taco! Get in the car!” (Though doesn’t that seem a little coercive for a feminist advertisement?) She does what she’s told and somehow her plight is solved by Larson executing three-point turns and testing out the Nissan Sentra’s auto reverse brakes.
The point that Brie relays to her new protege is that she shouldn’t put up with BS just to keep her job. Of course, that’s conveyed to the viewer via the fact that the Sentra may be an affordable option, BUT it sure doesn’t scrimp on amenities.
“Does this feel like a compromise to you?” Larson asks the confused passenger. “The handling is good, right? No compromise there,” she declares, as the oppressed female agrees. Eventually, the moral is conveyed. Larson instructs, “So, if this Nissan Sentra isn’t gonna compromise, why should you?” Ah, right. The commercial ends with the newly determined feminist getting out and going to give her boss what for.
Of course, the commercial can’t just be mildly annoying. Nissan put out a behind-the-scenes promo, where they sat down to get the full feminist thesis from Brie. She explained that the ad is about “sisterhood, pumping each other up, community, and allowing each other the opportunity to believe in ourselves.”
She explained the moment when she first “refused to compromise” and, yes, it involved an arrogant man in Hollywood. She explained, “I remember going in on my ten thousandth audition, going and being prepared… having all the credentials I needed and a guy on the other side of the table gave me a bad note.”
She remembered thinking, “I don’t wanna be on the wrong side of the table anymore. I want to be part of the conversation.”
Brie has been criticized in the past couple of years for taking an aggressive PC stand in her public appearances and interviews. During press tours for her recent films, she criticized white men, even quipping that she would’ve preferred a “black female journalist with cerebral palsy to interview her.” Yeah, who would’ve known we needed the same lesson in a car commercial.
