Everyone's talking about the new Dodge Charger ad, which is a pity, since I'm pretty sure that's what they wanted.  It would be difficult to think of a less misogynist ad campaign.  But I'll tell you what really wigs me out about this ad: the last man in it.  He bears more than a passing resemblance to Patrick Bateman, the serial killer of American Psycho fame.  And cast in this light, the voice-over seems more than a little reminiscent of Bateman's extensive, brand-heavy litanies.

Both the book and the movie version of American Psycho are told in the first person.  This lends credence to the narrator's voice - credence which, as it happens, is unwarranted.  It tells the story of a man who feels increasingly disconnected from and ignored by his high profile, high pressure life.  For his quarter-life crisis, he begins murdering women in as graphic a manner as possible (far more graphic in the novel than in the movie).

 Bateman blames the world for applying too much pressure, but whether it's the pressure of modern life, a serious psychiatric disorder, or the effects of way too much cocaine, we can never be sure.  What we can be sure of, though, is that Bateman increasingly feels like the world is ignoring him.

If you can overlook the violence, which is deliberately cartoonish and over-the-top, American Psycho is a fairly pedestrian late-80s tale of the ennui of modern life.  Brett Easton Ellis skewers the vanities of both contemporary life and self-absorbed 20-something professional white men, all while trapping the late-80s stockbroker world of Gordon Gekko in amber.

Patrick Bateman strikes out at women because they are weak, and he is strong.  He fancies himself the consummate predator.  In fact it is men who are oppressing him - his friends and coworkers - and Ellis drops more than a few hints that Bateman may be struggling with his own repressed homosexuality.

Interesting, then, that the Dodge Charger ad references it so heavily.  

Let's talk about that oppression theme, shall we?  People are subjugated by far worse things than demanding bosses in this world.  And people are kept down for reasons a lot more serious than "I don't want pee on the bathroom floor."  Every day people are facing real oppression because of the color of their skin, or because they are women, or disabled, or unattractive, or overweight.  

(Now granted, one of the four men shown in the ad is black.  I would very much like to have seen his Dodge Charger ad.  "I will ignore your comments about how I was hired in order to fill a quota.  I will avoid using slang.  I will try to smile when you say I sound educated.  I will not mention that black men are disproportionately more likely to receive a death sentence than white men convicted of the same crimes...")

But no, this ad isn't concerned about any of that.  It wants to comfort the straight white male, forced to bear the burden of a white collar job, the responsibilities of pet ownership, and the pressure to eat a balanced diet including fresh fruit.  

But the ridiculously petty nature of the Charger narrator's grievances also mirrors those of Patrick Bateman.  Bateman is successful, upwardly-mobile, independently wealthy, and holding a job only because it helps make him look normal.  

Ellis means for us to roll our eyes at Bateman's complaints.  Does the Charger ad mean us to do the same?