Too sensitive?
Audi have apologised for a car advertisement which depicts a little girl leaning against the front of a car eating a banana, after the Twitterati condemned it as
.provocative
and life-threatening
This is, apparently, because the driver would not be able to see the child in that pose, leaning on the grille
and the image was sexually suggestive, as bananas and sports cars have often been seen as symbols of male lust
.
To be fair, I'm not exactly sure that I see the point of the banana in this sales pitch, other than that the pose as a whole lends a feeling of relaxed insouciance, but the criticisms say more of pettiness of the critics than anything else. In a sane world, Audi would tell them to fuck off and get a life; but we don't live in a sane world, and trial by the vocal and opinionated minority on social media is the new norm.
Consequently, Audi have bent over and grabbed their ankles, thereby giving the indignantly self-righteous something to feel good about themselves. But how much respect have they lost among the silent majority?