Why do we work so hard? Actor Neal McDonough’s character asks this question at the beginning of “Poolside,” a commercial for the Cadillac ELR. The commercial, which began airing during the XXII Winter Olympics, was meant to instill American pride. McDonough’s xenophobic character claims that people in other countries don’t work as hard as Americans—they “stroll home,” “stop by the café” and “take August off.”
First of all, Americans aren’t the most hardworking people. In 2012, the average American full-time employee worked about 1,790 hours, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But in Chile, workers spent 2,029 hours working. The average Mexican workers spent 2,226 hours working. Workers in many other countries, including Russia, Poland and Greece, exceed the 1,790-hour bar set by Americans.
But that’s not my main gripe with this commercial. Its biggest fault is that it romanticizes the United States as a land of opportunity by ignoring the existence of all obstacles that make the American dream nearly impossible for some people to achieve.
“It’s pretty simple,” McDonough’s character said. “You work hard, you create your own luck, and you gotta believe anything is possible.”
This is a beautiful, wonderful sentiment that encapsulates everything that makes the American dream so dreamy. But let’s consider Cadillac’s casting choices. The casting of McDonough, a middle-aged white male, shows that Cadillac recognizes that most of its customers fit into this category. But in the context of this commercial, it suggests something more: In the U.S., it is mostly white men who are able to afford luxury cars. The overwhelming majority of the richest people in the U.S. are white males. Part of the reason members of this group tend to be affluent is because they have white privilege and male privilege.
“By the time women reach age 39, their wage growth pretty much stops all together,” said Catherine Rampell, a writer for The New York Times. The data, which Rampell got from PayScale, show that 39-year-old women with college degrees earn about $60,000 annually and continue to earn this same average salary through their 50s and 60s.
The scenario is quite different for men. “College-educated men, meanwhile, continue getting raises until about age 48, when their pay plateaus at about $95,000,” Rampell said.
Similarly, people of minority races earn less than white people. In 2008, black men earned only 71 percent of what white men earned, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
This is not to say hard work doesn’t play a role in a person’s success. However, hard work alone often isn’t enough. If you were to work 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year earning the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, you would make $14,500 per year, before taxes. That’s hardly enough to afford the $75,000 Cadillac ELR. Of course, Cadillac isn’t marketing to people who make minimum wage. The idea is that if you continue to work hard, you will eventually be able to afford a Cadillac. This brings us to another problem: The commercial emphasizes the importance of having stuff.
At the end of the commercial, McDonough says, “As for all the stuff, that’s the upside of only taking two weeks off in August.” This takes advantage of the consumerist American society. But we don’t need $75,000 cars, and we don’t need pools or mansions. And there’s nothing wrong with people from other cultures who take the time to “stop by the café” on their “stroll home.” Clearly they have already learned the importance of working to live rather than living to work.
