The two ads show men* responding to stifling morality. The morality in the Audi ad is consequentialist: it justifies restricting our behaviour to produce a certain result. The morality in the Dodge Charger ad is deontological, it justifies restricting our behaviour in the name of duty.
Elizabeth Bennett and Fanny Price might seem like they are in a completely different universe than men wanting to drive cars on the open road but there is a common element. Over and over again, Jane Austen's novels remind us that the two moral arguments mentioned above will always fail. We hate this sort of morality. It offers us nothing but shackles. And one day we will turn around like Elizabeth does to Lady Catherine and Fanny does to Sir Thomas and say something amounts to Lay Off! Yes, they both say it more subtlety than that but that is the message.
* Yes, the ads are all about men. And I can already hear some people sniping at the immaturity of men and their toys. And if sniping like that makes you feel good, go right ahead. But, trust me, you don't want to live in a society where large numbers of men feel that agency is being denied them.
The Dayo Olopade piece I criticized yesterday reaches what I think is the wrong conclusion but she is onto the right social trend. Particularly when she links it to Mad Men. Don Draper's character is all about the desire to have agency.
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