I thought this one was perhaps the most fun of all this year’s Super Bowl ads! It sure is over the top, and it’s great entertainment! It looks great, it’s well thought out and executed, and it’s just a dazzling display of production all around. There is, however, a slight problem with this ad for me, and it’s just the small quibble that I’m not so sure this is a good advert for this particular car, and I’ll tell you why.
When you’re dreaming your fantasy dream about hot women and fast cars and metal bands playing and such, you’d probably see that woman with the checkered flag, and you’d quite possibly see and hear Motley Crüe, and all that other fantasy stuff too, but you’d most certainly not be driving that car. That’s not a fantasy dream car: it’s a Kia Optima. And it’s a nice car, I’ll bet, but it’s a family sedan, not a dream race track super car: sorry to burst your bubble, Kia. All this pomp and circumstance is great, and I’m so glad they made this ad: I love it! But that car would be a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a McLaren, etc., not a Kia, and everybody knows it. And this fact just jumps out at me when I watch this ad, even though there are so many great things to distract from this point.
But here’s the thing: I can’t afford a Ferrari, even in my dreams. Maybe a Matchbox or Corgi scale replica toy, but the car. And the fact is, most other people can’t afford a Ferrari either (and even if they can, there’s a big waiting list!), so maybe they’ll see this ad, think what I thought about the car not being right for this ostentatious commercial, but then they’ll say: “Hey, maybe it’s cooler than I thought! I’ll have to go check it out and see.” And if that happens, then I’m wrong, and it’s the perfect ad for this car.
But the truth is, I only know this ad is for a Kia Optima because I wrote up a piece on the web teaser ad for this Super Bowl spot before, and so I already knew from writing about it. I might not have remembered what car it was an ad for otherwise. And if people don’t remember what car it’s an ad for, that’s a hell of a lot of effort for nothing as far as Kia is concerned. For me, and everyone else who saw it I’ll bet, it was a great piece of fantasy entertainment that was better-looking and more exciting and fun than most blockbuster movies, so thanks Kia, and I hope it works for you! (Really I do!)
Here’s the astonishingly astounding auto advert:
