As part of Hyundai's new holiday sales event, they launched an ad campaign centered around the word "duh." The event is called the Big Duh Holiday Sales Event, and here's one of the tv advertisements for it:
Obviously, this ad is unique and quirky and catches your attention. But is it in a positive way? Cody and I first saw this commercial a few weeks ago when we were watching tv together, and actually got a completely different impression that what I think the marketers intended. Cody interpreted the "Duh" statement that they repeatedly emphasize to replace the "Dai" in Hyundai. Like Hyunduh, which, when said aloud sounds a lot like Honda, a rivaling car company. Once I watched this commercial several more times, I realized the "duh" has nothing to do with the brand of the car persay, but is more just a really annoying central idea for this ad campaign. The advertisements take our favorite Christmas songs and minimize them to a series of "duhs" in varying tones and keys, and then throws in some creepy, trippykaleidoscope-like shots of carolers spinning and singing in colorful robes. What does this have to do with this car company? The word "duh" does not make me want to buy anything. It makes me feel like I'm twelve. And I'm sure twelve year olds are not the target market for this product.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Holi-DUH? WHAT?
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1 comment:
i don't like these ads to begin with. they are annoying and do not convey a positive brand identity. do you really want your car brand identified as the DUH commercial place. i can't speak for the rest of America but everyone that i have been with that has seen this commercial has said that it is not very good at all. maybe they should go a more sophisticated direction like BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus to name a few. Those ads are much more appealing!
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