This spot is wonderfully produced, and it’s fun, but I have one issue with it, and that’s simply that it looks like it could easily be an ad for any car company. There is something about Hyundai that really is amazing, and this ad doesn’t really directly address it: When I was a teenager, Hyundai was making cars that were about as good as the Yugo, and they were certainly made fun of as much. But now, they’ve got many award-winning, best-selling cars. That’s an amazing success story!
While Detroit was going broke making the same car over and over for years, Hyundai kept getting better, to the point where they can compete with European luxury brands that are over four times older than they are (and the Hyundai costs a lot less money, too!). I know that making an ad bashing Detroit right now would win boos and raspberries from any audience (rightly: Detroit is making a wonderful comeback thus far, and I’m really glad they were saved), but saying how much they’ve grown and succeeded over such a short time might be a better message for Hyundai. This Rocky theme ad is great fun, and they do address the issue of finding a way in design, but it just doesn’t stick out in my mind as saying: “Hyundai”, as opposed to any other car company. (I was keeping track so I could write about it. But otherwise, I might not have remembered it was even for Hyundai to begin with.)
But it certainly is the classic Super Bowl-style commercial, right? Big and bombastic and fun, and on a huge, epic scale! I really liked it, too. But I think Hyundai has an even more amazing story to tell than that. So for me, a better idea would be to have the Rocky theme playing, while they show a progression of their cars from their very first American car to their top model now, all in the same color, getting better and better along with the Rocky theme song, as if it’s becoming the newer one by working out or being inspired by training to the Rocky theme. (Maybe they could have it sit for a second, and drive off to the right, and then the next model could drive up from the left, stop for a second, and then drive off to the right, and then the next one, and the next one, etc., to show it’s improving as its going along, and this would make it seem like it’s training and getting in better shape from every lap, or whatever.) For me, that would have sent an even more impressive message about Hyundai: the company that’s gone from nothing to top honors, and has done it all in about 25 years.
Here’s the Rocky regalia:
