Discuss It! Toyota’s Corolla Commercial - commendable or predictable?

 

Sexuality is an easily marketable asset when it comes to shock. Sexualized advertisements exploit natural human impulses and is the Achilles’ heel of the highly prized teenage demographic. The effect of constant exposure to sexualized images in the media on my generation is well documented and extensive.  However, most of the criticism around this exposure is aimed at advertisements that extol the virtues of a single kind of beauty: a single shape, a single size, a single ‘look’. “Alternative” advertising, like Dove’s or Fruit of the Loom’s, is often praised, even though both brands use sexuality as an advertising tool. So the question is, is sexualization of the media okay, just as long as we represent diversity?

 

Enter Toyota’s new advertisement. Toyota exploits the viewer as much as the model, seducing us with a mainstream image of anonymous female sexualization and then brutally flipping the coin, forcing the viewer to accept a form of sexuality still deeply discriminated against in our society. If you have read this far and not watched the ad, do it now. If you have seen it, watch it a second time. Then, read on.

 

Personally, being a contradictory sort of person, I relish in the discomfort that the ad produces in most of the people I showed it to. The most common response – the instinctive flinch – is perhaps the most telling. We live in a world with a culture of discomfort, where male gay attraction is so profoundly uncomfortable that to be accidentally attracted to a man, or in this case an androgynous model, scares many straight men. Where straight, bi and lesbian girls can all dance provocatively with one another and occasionally even kiss, straight men are forced into rigid gender roles that leave no room for confusion. Being forced to confront the reality that yes, you can be sexually attracted to a feminine-looking guy, and that yes, it is okay to be such, is one of the most important steps towards tolerance. Stav Strashko, the model in the commercial, is hot, sexy and proud. What is more admirable than that? I love that a major brand like Toyota is willing to stand up for and advertise those differences.

 

At the end of the day, though, Toyota wasn’t just promoting tolerance. The shock value of the ad gave Toyota a lot more than a minute of many people’s time, and the commercial value of that time is undeniable. Toyota may have been diversifying the portfolio of bodies objectified in the media, but the ad was purely about the physicality of the model – not about the product, not about the person. It is undeniably less harmful to young people – girls, boys, and anyone in between – to see a broader range of bodies shown to be admirable, or beautiful. However, the shock value of an oddity isn’t about that, just as Abercrombie isn’t trying to promote athleticism through their models’ ripped abs. Advertisers’ interests are primarily commercial. By tempering commercial interests with human perspectives, we can make changes that are a lot more valuable than a Toyota Corolla. 

 

 

I was no different than most (everyone?) who watched the Toyota commercial featuring Stav Strashko, a Ukrainian-born male model from Tel Aviv ... I was shocked. But rather than experiencing the aghast faces and twinge of anxiety that many straight men might have experienced after viewing what they thought was going to be another “hot blonde with hot car” commercial, I wanted to celebrate! Here was a beautiful man showing off his body in the comfortable way only a seasoned cat-walker could pull off, and no one was trying to cover up the fact that he was, indeed, a man. 

 

I recognize that the sexualization of Strashko was yawn-inducing in its predictable objectifying shot of the posterior and the teaser of him stripping off his robe to expose collar bones. But in the face of being introduced (subversively, mind you. Again, this was not shown on US channels) to to a male model acting comfortably feminine in a commercial, especially for a mainstream company such as Toyota, I could easily get passed the formulaic sexualization. This advertisement, though still limited in its viewership, is proof that our capitalistic society is going to start to see a trickle-down effect beginning from the high couture run-way shows, and land on the back covers of our magazines.  

When androgynous high couture models like Andrej Pejic are featured nonchalantly in both male and female fashion shows, the inundation of gender-bending beauties in the rest of our society is close to follow.  What’s eclectic and subversive now will soon become mainstream and blase later on. Ever since Toyota’s folly with production several years ago, the company has been desperately trying to revamp not only their product but their image as well.  Perhaps it was only at rock-bottom were they given a chance to revamp everything.  Take, for instance, the commercial that was featured in the US, about the “Reinvented Camry”.  The idea behind “reinvention” is about bluntly rejecting the old to making no apologies for the new standard. And Strashko certainly seemed unapologetic with the statement he made when he whipped around to face the camera. 

 

So the “Shock Value” bandwagon hasn’t reached state-side's shores yet - perhaps when it does finally reach us, hopefully the look will stay the same but the name will have changed to “Status Quo.”