Audi: Worst Christmas Commercial Ever?

The annoying Christmas commercials began way too early this year, and repeated viewings have already blurred their edges, but there is one commercial in particular that fries my beans every time it comes on — the Audi commercial featuring baby-boomer parents making their opulent house ready for a visit from their grown son. The mother is dressing the table; the father is hanging the son’s stocking on the mantel. And when the son pulls up to the house…they don’t even greet him; they rush out the back door and jump in his car to take a ride.

The son is left calling after them, and they’re giggling and reassuring themselves that “he’ll be alright,” while they indulge their need for an immediate gratification that is exclusionary.

Aside from the fact that the commercial runs counter everything “the holidays” are supposed to be about (reconnecting with family, home, hearth, warmth, love, etc) the thing is a perfectly drawn caricature of the baby boomer generation: superficial, self-concerned and materialistic.

I am not on an anti-boomer jag. All baby-boomers do not fit that narrative, of course. But caricatures do have some basis in fact.

I actually doubt the Audi folk were going for a boomer-critique, here. Perhaps their intention was to critique successful capitalists. Or perhaps they weren’t intending to make a criticism at all, and the writers just thought this was funny — invite the kid home because you can’t wait to use his car?

I have never gotten the joke — didn’t find it funny on the first viewing and am less amused each time it comes on the air.

What about you? What Christmas commercial is completely under your skin, this year?