"Does this car make my penis look big?"

Ah, the proverbial vehicle-as-panty-dropper phenomenon. I'm gonna go ahead an chalk it up on the list of things I don't understand, right up there with economics and Mary-Louise Parker's strange ability to somehow evade aging. Mysteries, all. But I digress.

This BMW commercial was brought to my attention last week. In it, a boy picks up his date for prom, who I'm assuming they intended to look out of his league.
After performing typical "nice guy" actions (presenting her with a flower and opening the passenger door for her), he walks around the back of the car and does a quick celebratory victory-dance, involving outlining an imaginary "hourglass" female figure and spanking that imaginary figure. Once he gets in the car, he realizes his date, looking at him angrily, saw the whole thing on the car's rear-view camera. However, much to his surprise, she grabs his face and aggressively kisses him. Watch below:

Now, there are a variety of messages that could be presented by this girl's reaction. 

1. Catching this boy celebratory dance is embarrassing, and therefore endearing. (Possible, but I'm not buying it, if for no other reason than the fact that endearing, mildly nerdy teenagers don't sell $50,000 cars.)
2. His driving a BMW automatically makes him more attractive.
3. His driving a BMW makes her okay with being objectified.
4. His driving a BMW prompts her to unleash her sexually aggressive side before they even leave the driveway. 

There has been a long-standing idea in society that cars are symbols of power and, oftentimes, masculinity. Is it any wonder that in Holz-Ivory et al.'s study of gendered relationships on television, one of their coding categories for dominant acts was "drives a motor vehicle"? It would appear that, in this case, the BMW as a symbol of power and dominance certainly heightens this fellow's appeal.

This commercial is especially interesting in light of the in-class lists we created of traits in an "ideal" boyfriend and girlfriend. It seemed that the general consensus in these lists was that men look for physical attractiveness first, while women look for success.  In a matter of 30 seconds, BMW touches on the main qualities that are sought after by the stereotypical male and female; The boy is excited to go to the prom on the arm of a girl with a good body, while the girl is excited to go to the prom on the arm of a boy with a nice car.

In closing, I'll leave you with the top two YouTube comments on this video's page:

Telling.