Minivan Rap Song - Toyota Sienna Swagger Wagon

Though suburban chic used to mean white picket fences, the minivan rap song highlights that numerous parents are bringing “cool” back to the ‘burbs. The Minivan rap song tries the equivalent of getting an no fax payday loans for the minivans’ image – proving they’re “awesome” by doing what all the cool kids are doing. Did this ad do what it was intended to, without offending anyone?

Minivan rap song combines irony, parody, and trendy?

The Toyota Sienna minivan rap song seems designed to be very ironic. A couple with two children rap about loving their life as parents and having a “swagger wagon.” This admittedly very amusing commercial seems very self-consciously parody. The humor, though, stems from the stereotypical premise that white individuals from the suburbs “shouldn’t” be rapping. The real irony, though, is while most hip-hop music is performed by minority musicians, within the billion-dollar hip-hop industry a lot more than 70 percent of music sales are made to white individuals. Genre-crossing hip hop music and performances have also been "taking over" top 40 pop charts for the last few years.

Minivan rap song continues an advertising trend

The minivan rap song advertising the Toyota Sienna is far from the first ad to use the thought of getting very uptight individuals to rap for humor. Similar commercials are put together by the ad agencies for Taco Bell, Chicago-Lake Liquors, Baskin-Robbins, and Smirnoff. Comedians, including Saturday Night Live, have long used this schtick to get laughs.

Offended by the minivan rap song?

While most individuals are just watching and giggling at the minivan rap song, a few are calling it offensive. The "Head of Cultural Trends" at a minority-marketing agency gave her opinion about this type of ad a year or so ago. The question she poses about this are legitimate:

What is designed to be amusing about this video? White people posturing in (stereotypically) non-white scenarios? When is race role-play and cultural appropriation okay? When is it acceptable, and when is it derogatory?

How do you see this question?