Brands for years have used their advertising platforms to communicate messages of female empowerment and gender equality—generally without provoking controversy.

But auto maker Audi’s NSU 0.63% new Super Bowl ad, which promotes gender pay equity, has struck a nerve with some viewers since it was released on YouTube Wednesday. In the ad, dubbed “Daughter,” a father watches his daughter compete in a cart race with other children.

“What do I tell my daughter?” he asks. “Do I tell her that her grandpa’s worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom? Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets? Or maybe, I’ll be able to tell her something different.”

The ad ends with a message on screen: “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work.”

The spot has amassed over 2 million views on YouTube. As of Thursday afternoon there were over 18,000 negative comments compared to around 1,110 positive ones. Some viewers were offended by the message, calling it “100% liberal trash propaganda”﻿ and “anti-male propaganda.﻿”

One user wrote, “ummm…that she needs to work hard and everything is fine…as a woman I want to say…I am not a victim, don’t let your daughter feel like she is one either. And IF AUDI thinks that my father is worth more than MY Mother, maybe they should ask my father about that. NOT THE WAY I WAS RAISED IN AMERICA.﻿”

Others came to the ad’s defense. Google’s Tara Walpert Levy tweeted her support of the ad.

Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo’s global beverage group, also weighed in with praise of the spot.

Networked Insights, a research firm that mines social media sites, said there have been roughly 4,580 comments made about the Audi commercial on Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms as of mid-day Thursday. About 25% of the comments have been negative while 13% have been positive.

The critics of the ad are commenting that they “disliked the ad because they believed it was pure political propaganda,” and others found it to be “disingenuous coming from a brand that has never taken a stance on the topic in the past,” according to Networked Insights. Positive commentators, the research firm said, found the ad to be “uplifting and praised Audi for addressing the issue of gender.”

Marketers have run a variety of high-profile gender empowerment campaigns over the years, on issues from body image to stereotypes in sports. In one ad for deodorant maker Secret for its “Stress Test” campaign, a young woman practices a speech she plans to make asking her boss for a raise.

The gender pay gap has become a big issue in corporate boardrooms and politics and was a topic of debate in the 2016 presidential campaign. Women with bachelor’s degrees or higher earned 76% of their male peers in that group in 2014, according to the Labor Department. Women with less than a high-school diploma working full time earned 79% of male peers.

“Audi of America is committed to supporting pay equality, inclusivity, and the growth and development of all employees,” the company said in a statement promoting the spot, which was created by Venables Bell & Partners.

The Super Bowl, the biggest TV event with an audience of 100 million-plus, draws much more attention to ad campaigns. And brands that delve into social or political issues know there are risks of alienating certain segments of their customer base.

Other brands whose ads intersect with hot button topics in politics and society include Kia—whose ad features Melissa McCarthy as an “eco warrior” trying to save whales and trees (the ad is for the hybrid Kia Niro )—and Budweiser, whose ad is about the immigration tale of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s co-founder.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com