I didn’t watch the Super Bowl XL, this year… in fact I never watch it, as I couldn’t care less. I usually catch the commercials on the internet afterwards, since it’s not worth suffering through hours of football just for some funny commercials.

This year there was a commercial for the Toyota Camry Hybrid, which featured a hispanic man and small boy. Their conversation went like this:

Boy: Papa, why do we have a hybrid?
Man: For your future.
Boy: Why?
Man: It’s better for the air, and we spend less because it runs on gas and electrical power.
Man: Mire—mire aquí. Man points to console display, which shows the engine, battery, and electric motor status.
Man: It uses both.
Boy: Like you with English and Spanish!
Man: Si!
Boy: So why did you learn English?
Man: For your future!

What the hell? The subtext of the whole commercial is: immigrants need to learn English. I won’t argue against that point—that battle has been played out many times by many people. Instead I’ll just hit the point I care about: Why did they include this subtext in a car commercial. It would’ve been a fine public service announcement if not sponsored by Toyota. Instead, it just seems in poor taste, at least to me.