Hyundai's new ad campaign for their Santa Fe uses a tried-and-true sales tool—sex — but in a creepily delusional way. Seeing their latest ad, classily named Upskirt, is like decoding the MRI of a masturbating junior high boy and converting it into video.
Of course you want to see the video now. Need to be alone for a bit? Maybe. Want to buy a Santa Fe now? I doubt it.
Let's hope this is just a spec ad.
The people who made the ad say this:
In order to introduce the new Hyundai Santa Fe, Fitzroy Amsterdam developed an edgy campaign where the new design – the so called Storm Edge design – is placed centrally. With this new design Hyundai pushes the boundaries within their communication. This is perfectly in line with their pay-off slogan: "New thinking. New possibilities." The sensual campaign can be admired on the internet as well as television.
Yes, sensual. Right. Classy skirts blowing up in the face of physics, like an Art Frahm painting. And the "Storm Edge" design language is placed centrally? Really? Is "Storm Edge" the name for the design of nipples and asses?
Look, I know pretty girls will always be used to sell cars, and I'm fine with that, and I'm as easily and frequently aroused as any testosterone-addled typing chimp, but this ad just feels embarrassing. This is the sort of thing that may play in your head, furtively, when no one's watching, but in the context of selling a freaking Santa Fe— one of the most anonymous-looking SUVs out there— it just seems silly. Besides, don't moms usually buy these things?
Asses, nipples, sweat, humid, lurid looks— they're all great and have their place, but these Dutch guys should just make these ads, beat off to them, then make something they can actually use that isn't quite so cynically ridiculous.
I'll be in the bathroom if you need me.