Minivan Rap Song - Toyota Sienna Swagger Wagon

Cool is coming back to the suburbs, if the new minivan rap song is to be believed. 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. Could this rap song be considered offensive, if effective?

Minivan rap song – trendy parody?

The Toyota Sienna minivan rap song seems intended to be very ironic. Two rather average-ish looking parents rap about loving being parents and loving their "swagger wagon.” The video is incredibly amusing, parody and irony mixing together. The humor, though, stems from the stereotypical premise that white people 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. Pop music charts are also being taken over by hip-hop music.

Minivan rap song continues an advertising trend

Far from the first, the minivan rap song is one of a long list of advertisements that have "ironic rap". Everyone from Taco Bell to Smirnoff have done similar commercials, to different levels of success. Comedians such as Barats and Bereta, as well as hundreds of SNL skits, have also made careers on the concept.

Minivan rap song offensive?

From online commentary, most just find the minivan rap song amusing. The head of Cultural Trends at an ad agency that specializes in “campaigns that target minorities” has written extensively about advertisements such as this. She poses a question that is worth discussion:

What is intended to be funny 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?

So what do you think?