Clean Diesel and Bad Women Drivers

Yesterday I watched the new Audi commercial promoting the use of clean diesel. It's a hilarious commercial, and it's smart. It uses humor, dramatic music, and the exploitation of misconceptions about diesel (and women drivers) to show that this particular car is the wave of the future (or so they say.) The commercial begins with this business woman filling up her brand new white car with diesel. All of these different bystanders freak out by slow-motion-yelling "NO!" Two policemen, the guy at the check out counter, kids in a backseat, and a random guy in a building all yell at her trying to get her attention. It is highly dramatized in a really funny way, with slow music and dogs barking to make you feel like it's the biggest deal in the world. Finally, the guy in the gas mart comes out and tells her that she is filling up her car with diesel, to which she responds smartly, "I know." Her counterpart (husband?) rolls his eyes giving you the impression that this exact same thing has happened before. Something interesting that I thought about was could this commercial have been made if the main character was a man instead of a woman? I'm not here to make this an everyone-hates-women type of thing, but it is a valid question I feel. The commercial plays off the fact that everyone thinks this woman  is making a huge mistake since she must not know anything about cars. Change that character to a man and it really isn't as funny. Finally, the insertion of "clean" in front of diesel seemed quite strategic to me as well. Diesel is so often associated with everything that is wrong with the planet, not paired with the word "clean." It is also intriguing to me how a funny commercial really does build familiarity between a consumer and a company. I thought about this and I think that humor is something that builds friendships - we joke with whom we feel comfortable. In a strange way, humor used in ads really does build a kind of bond sometimes. As corny as it is, I walked away from seeing this commercial, and although I am probably not buying an Audi anytime soon, I have this weird respect for this huge car company. How does advertising manage to do this so sneakily well?