Jaselle Ríos

Professor Hugetz

ENGLLISH 1301

November 18th, 2020

VRA Project

In the mid 60’s it was a commonly mistaken idea that women were terrible drivers, but it

seemed to be so common that companies used that to help sell their products – to protect the

women of course. Good Year released an ad for polyglas tires, but they decided that the premise

would be about what happens, “When a woman behind the wheel…” Throughout the 60’s there

was a rise in feminism, but society still revolved around the idea that women were meant to be

housewives. Cooking, cleaning, bearing children, all on repeat. Many advertisements at the time

relied on this idea in order to sell their products. Businesses everywhere capitalized on this

casual sexism. The Good Year Polyglas ad circled around the idea that since women are familiar

with house duties, they are more prone to getting into accidents and reckless driving. In the

1960’s Good Year Polyglas commercial, word choice, narration, editing, and the overall theme

help build an argument against the sexist attitudes of the time period.

Sexism wasn’t exactly something people shied away from in the 60’s, it was so common in fact,

advertisements had no problem including such ideas into their advertisements. In the commercial

mentioned, it shows that it was somewhat normal to express that women were less-than, or that

they couldn’t do the same things that men could do. And for the time being, nobody seemed to

mind it or really think twice about it. It was something that just wasn’t spoken about, so much so,
that it was ‘okay’ to put such ideas and beliefs out there in the media. It proves that

advertisements were likely to portray women in the same light – careless, vulnerable, and in need

of a man’s help. The narration indicates that it is far more dangerous when a woman is driving

versus when a man is behind the wheel. One could argue that the advertisers are just trying to

keep the driver safe – but if that was so, they would have shown a man driving as well.

The editing throughout the commercial makes it seem extremely chaotic when the woman is

behind the wheel – because according to the advertisers: that’s exactly how it is when a woman

is behind the wheel. Throughout the video, you can see the fast-paced editing – clips of street

signs, speeding cars, bouncing tires, etc. It also plays suspenseful music in the background to

make it seem as if that’s the atmosphere that would be created when a woman is driving, and

how dangerous it could possibly be. And that’s why you should buy the polyglas tires that are

being advertised – to prevent all that chaos from happening. To make it seem as if all hell would

break loose if a woman were to drive is rather sexist in and of itself, but also completely false.

Men can be much worse behind the wheel – it really doesn’t matter – man, woman, or anything

in between: people are just terrible at driving.