Thanks to John Marshall for alerting me to this commercial.
First, the advertisement.
They spent most of this commercial showing examples of dead batteries in daily life — apparently because they assume the concept of “dead battery” is difficult for the consumer to understand.
Then they rely on words — not visual images — to “sell” Hyundai’s message.
What should they have done instead?
Easy: After establishing the “dead battery” theme, show us a solitary car — a Hyundai — remaining in a huge stadium parking lot.
At night.
Very late.
One person rapidly approaches the vehicle, warily scanning the empty lot as he (or she) climbs into the driver’s seat.
His hand on the ignition key, and then a pause, as he holds his breath.
The engine starts flawlessly, and he drives away serenely.
Hint #1: Show us the results Hyundai’s wonderful batteries promise drivers.
Hint #2: People don’t worry about their car battery suddenly dying when it’s safely parked in front of their homes.
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Is a battery really how they’ll get people to buy the car anyway? That’s more of something that a salesperson on the Hyundai lot should have in their “closing repertoire”.
And if you ARE going to push “battery life”…why not just come out and say, “The battery in our hybrid lasts an average of 270,000 miles.” People understand dead batteries. I still don’t think it’s a strong enough point to make it a core message in an ad.
This would be a fine ad for Energizer, Everready, or Rayovac. Is battery life a problem in a hybrid car? I wouldn’t know, because I, and the vast majority of the people watching this ad, don’t drive one.
jb…
Precisely.
Dan, did you see the one for the chevy volt at the drivethru in 2 parts?
Really better, n funnier…
The parking lot idea has been done so many times by Sears Die-Hard that it is beyond cliche’. Still… I think they;re trying to say they’re in the reliability business don’t we relate relate automotive reliability to whether our car will start when we put in the key and give it a twist? They’re showing frustration with things that don’t work at the time when you need them the most. The battery is the main character… in an allegory for unreliability. That’s how it seems to me anyway. I get it. Don’t you, really?
Couple more problems with Dan’s take here … 1) you assume there is still a ‘key’ to turn in the ignition. Welcome to the age of push button start! 2011 standard equipment on the Sonata hybrid is … push button start. 2) These hybrid systems usually start out in electric only mode … sooooooooo there’s no engine to ‘start’ per se.
So, it’s a rare case of I’d have to give Dan a fail on his creative.
Electric cars and plug-in hybrids are the future, Hydrogen is not.
I too feel like the core message shouldn’t have been about the battery lasting 270,000 miles, but I do know that a lo of people don’t think the battery will last very long. It’s a tough call.