A lot of individuals are familiar with motor vehicle ads that tend to depict women as sex objects or subjects to men. An ad ran by Daihatsu motor vehicle Company, which features a man driving a Hijet MPV clearly depicting the picture. The ad has a headline saying "Picks up five more women than a Lamborghini. Daihatsu Company believes that a man loves having women around and will do anything to make that happen. The ad as illustrated in figure 1 suggests that having the Hijet MPV, a man can be able to pick more women than another man who has a Lamborghini which is known to accommodate a one passenger seat which is not friendlier to a group of women.
The target audience in this ad is clearly men. With the Hijet MPV van, a man will be able to drive around picking more women as one wishes like a magnet. This depicts women as subjects. In this case, the use of women cannot only be appreciated as subjects but also the prejudice of "men's pets". The advertisement tends to show the position of the female gender rather than the ability to promote the vehicle with good ideas and arguments.
Humor has been employed in this advertisement as pathos – based technique. It is so bizarre in nature presenting a man who looks really excited having the women in the Hijet MPV. The ad suggests that a man becomes happier and fascinated when the man has a number of women around him. It also uses the 'the promise of gain' terming the Hijet MPV as a "little babe – magnet", clearly demonstrated with the ladies in the van. Furthermore, to also stir things up, the ad brings about racism by advocating to the audience to forget about Italian racers. It also says that the Hijet MPV "Picks up five times more women than a Lamborghini" which is made in Italy.
The ad is resolute to show and prove that a man gets to be happy when with the Hijet MPV and is able to flirt with every woman he likes since the van acts as a "bar – magnet".
