By Sofia Urbina
For this year’s International Women’s Day, Mercedes Benz released an ad titled “One of Many.” The commercial displays women in high positions who garnered notoriety for being exceptional or the first in their field. There are scenes of girls in different environments surrounded by mostly boys. As the ad progresses, the narrator (a young girl) poses multiple questions. What if women didn’t have to be exceptional or the best to occupy these male-dominated spaces? Why be the first instead of one of many?
Mercedes-Benz’s commercial strategy consists of targeting demographics between the ages of 25-40 using social media, TV commercials, typical advertisements, and of course: brand perception. International Women’s Day is not just a day to celebrate those who identify as such, but for big companies to showcase just how feminist and inclusive they are. Popular feminism, the act of commodifying and consuming feminist ideology, has been a part of Western culture for the past decade, if not longer. Multimedia companies implement feminist ideologies into their marketing, whether they are sincere about women’s rights or just trying to sell their brand is up for debate.
The Mercedes-Benz website claims: ”The advancement of women is a focus topic in diversity management. Mercedes-Benz has set itself aspirational goals to fill more senior management positions with qualified women and aims to achieve a share of 30 percent in 2030 as a next step. At Mercedes-Benz, the proportion of women in senior management positions worldwide is at almost 25% by December 31, 2022.” Race plays a big part in all of this as intersectional feminism is imperative in today’s fight for equality. Only 13% of Black or African Americans and 36% of women work at Mercedes-Benz. This wide gap between their White and male counterparts proves that MB still has a long way to go to reach an equal company. It is interesting then, that the “One of Many” ad would criticize the vocabulary often used to celebrate women in male-dominated spaces but still fails to hire more women.
“The inclusion of women becomes the solution for all gender problems, not just those of exclusion or absence. It is, of course, important to have bodies at the table, but their mere presence doesn’t necessarily challenge the structure that supports, and builds, the table in the first place.”
Sarah Benet-Weiser
The fact of the matter is that companies like Mercedes-Benz and ‘popular feminism’ thrive on the neoliberal market they exist in. Individualism, the free market, and most importantly, democracy, are fundamental pillars needed to ensure mainstream relevancy. Sarah Benet-Wesier speaks on the notion of falling for the idea that buying consumer goods attached to feminist branding makes us good feminists. How are we dismantling the patriarchal structure that oppresses women outside of participating in consumerism? It is simply not enough to buy these products and feel good about our activism. Are these brands hiring not just white women but women of color as well? Are they actively seeking ways to make their workspace a safe environment? I believe that there is now more pushback than ever against the shallow ways that popular feminism works. We cannot call ourselves feminists if we are not intersectional about our fights.
In the “One of Many” ad, it is vocalized how absurd it is that even after all this time women are still only considered exceptional or extraordinary when they are the minority in the fields that they choose. I found this ad interesting because of its underlying critique of where we are in terms of women’s rights.