A Dream Car. For Real Life.
What do Victoria's Secret supermodel Adriana Lima, the rock band Motley Crue, NFL player Brett Keisel, and UFC fighter Chuck Liddell all have in common? At first glance, not much besides that fact that they are all famous. The unexpected link is that they all appeared in the extended version of Kia's 2012 Super Bowl ad, promoting the newest version of the Optima. In this ad, the "sandman" accidentally spills too much of his dream potion on a suburban husband, launching him into a dream fantasy on steroids, featuring the above celebrities and, of course, the 2012 Optima.
At the beginning of this ad, the "sandman" tiptoes into the room of a sleeping couple. In the background plays a peaceful version of Pat Ballard's song "Mr. Sandman". The "sandman" slips over to the wife's side of the bed and sprinkles her with his dream powder. The ad then displays the wife's dream, where she rides horseback over green hills with a Fabio-esque male model. The "sandman" then heads to the husband's side of the bed, but on his way, he trips over a pair of slippers, dousing the sleeping man with a much higher dose of the dream powder than he intended. The husband then launches into an intense dream sequence, which begins with him racing a Kia Optima as a provocatively-dressed Adriana Lima waves a checkered flag. As he drives down the racetrack, he is suddenly in the middle of a Motley Crue concert. As the band sings "Kickstart My Heart", crowds of bikini-clad women scream and wave at the Optima-driving husband from the stands of the racetrack. As the "Optima Guy" continues down the track, he drives past NFL player Brett Keisel, who happens to be dressed as a lumberjack while sawing a sandwich the size of a tree. Recognizing the inherent awesomeness of the "Optima Guy", Brett gives him a thumbs-up as a drives by. The "Optima Guy" continues down the track past a octagon ring, where Chuck Liddell makes his opponent's head explode in a ball of fire and roars. Throughout this whole dream sequence, "Optima Guy" is wearing a giddy smile on his face. For the finale of his dream sequence, "Optima Guy" drives through the retaining wall of the racetrack, and crashes into his wife's dream. "Optima Guy" steals back his wife from the Fabio look-alike, for of course a man driving an Optima is much sexier than a guy out of a romance novel. The couple drives off into the sunset, in the Optima, of course.
The "Dream Car" advertising strategy clearly employs several common advertising techniques. The celebrity appeal of this 90-second commercial is obvious, as Kia is clearly utilizing the famous-person testimonial approach, displaying how impressed these famous people are by the sexiness of the new Optima.
The fact that Kia is promoting "a dream car for real life" exhibits that they are employing the plain-folks pitch by marketing affordable luxury. Kia is telling us that here is a new sporty car that your average "Suburban Joe" can afford. Kia also presents the Optima as a "dream car" by employing the association principle. Through this ad, Kia is sending the message that the new Optima is sexy by associating it with bikini-clad women, celebrities, and adrenaline. This ad also employs the use of myth through the face that it tells a "mini story" with characters, setting, a plot, and conflict resolution. The conflict in this ad resolves through the triumph of the "Optima Guy" over the guy who looks like Fabio. All of the techniques used during this ad seem pretty smooth and fit together to make a very catchy and entertaining ad. The "Dream Car" ad represents a new approach to advertising from Kia, promoting Optima as a "sexy" and luxurious car. Before this ad, we associated Kia commercials with the silly dancing hamsters that they used to promote the Kia Soul.
While part of the "Dream Car" ad is a recycled racetrack theme which we have seen a million time in car commercials, the plot and actions of the characters and famous people presented throughout the commercial are unique, creative, and humorous. While it is very common to use famous people in commercials to market a product, the celebrities in this commercial serve the plot of the story rather than the other way around. The celebrities in this commercial are integral to the "Optima Guy's" dream and build his ego. The celebrities complement the story instead of being the story. And while the "Dream Car" ad obviously appeals to men's dreams and fantasies, the humor of the story is generally appealing and marketable to all audiences. The ad clearly plays off of the stereotypical male fantasies--women, cars, sports, music, and food. The ad also stereotypes the female fantasy--riding off into the sunset on with Prince Charming. While these stereotypes are certainly generalizations, they are meant to be humorous and are certainly not offensive.
One strengths of this ad is that, on the first viewing, it is surprising and unpredictable. You do not know what is going to happen until you get to the end. Another strength is in the appeal of the rock music in the ad, which enhances the energy and emotion of the ad. The only weakness that I noted in the commercial was that it is far-fetched, silly, and obviously unbelievable. Some people may not find it humorous. While the plot and celebrity appeal of the full-length ad certainly stick in your memory, Kia frequently runs a shorter version of the ad. The shorter version just shows the "Optima Guy" on the racetrack, and the effect is much less memorable. I think the commercial works into the marketing scheme and makes men, that targeted audience, want to check out this car if they can afford it. Kia has some large hurdles to overcome since they tend to be considered a discount car instead of a quality car. This commercial attempts to do away with that image.
This commercial engaged me and made me want to check out the new 2012 Optima. While I am an Optima owner already (although mine is 2008), my car does not seem as fancy as the 2012 Optima that they are trying to market through the commercial. What I saw in the commercial was a sleek, sporty car. This commercial made me think that perhaps Kia is upping the ante with the quality and appeal of their newer models, and after watching this commercial, I am at least interested enough to want to learn a little more.
What I learned though completing this assignment is that many advertising strategies and techniques are embedded in the commercials that we watch every day. Just watching the commercials, you often don't see the selling "tricks" that make most commercials so effective. Most people have a general understanding that commercials are trying to sell you stuff, but rarely do we think about how it works and what specific techniques are being used. What surprised me about this ad when I started analyzing it was how detailed in was. The first time I watched the ad, I understood that there were celebrities in it, but as I watched it more times, I realized that there were more celebrities than I thought, some of them only spending a split second on the screen. It will be kind of cool to pay attention to other ads now, to see what how they try to manipulate the common person into buying their products.
Another blog by John Neff also addresses some things about this commercial.
