When ‘shock advertising’ goes too far

Last week, Hyundai launched an advert for its new iX35 in a bid to demonstrate just how clean their emissions are, with a 60 second long suicide joke. Yes, a suicide joke. Hyundai, what were you thinking? Controversial or ‘shock’ advertising campaigns can occasionally achieve some success; namely because so many people end up talking about the ad that the brand gets the attention it’s after. But when they go wrong, oh boy do they go wrong. The reaction to Hyundai’s ad was not surprisingly, outraged, and for one particular blogger, very upsetting.

The ad went viral, and not in the way the Hyundai wanted it too, shared thousands of times across social networks and leaving them with a serious PR problem. The ad has been pulled and an official apology issued by Hyundai, but the damage is done and they’ve a lot of ground to make up. The whole debacle begs the question of why this ad was ever considered a good idea in the first place. We don’t make adverts here at Spark, but I can safely say if during one of our team brainstorms, something along these lines was suggested for a PR campaign (it wouldn’t be – we are not insane), then gasps of horror would abound. I can’t even begin to imagine the meeting in which this little Hyundai gem was hit upon, and I equally can’t believe that there were no voices of dissent.

Sometimes, being a little controversial, going beyond the obvious or making provocative statements is no bad thing as part of a larger campaign both in PR and advertising to make your voice heard above the rest. As Stephanie recently blogged, ‘issues response’, the PR practice of making swift comment on topical news stories, is a tactic which can work very well, but knowing when you’re going to far is equally important. At the outset of campaign, be it PR, advertising or marketing, you should consider first and foremost exactly what it is you’re trying to communicate. Then comes the ‘how’. Hyundai clearly weren’t trying to say that you can’t commit suicide with one of their cars, they were trying to demonstrate how eco-friendly they are and they got it staggeringly wrong.

Many internet commentators lay the blame for this ad at the door of ‘creative-thinking’ types, I firmly lay the blame at the door of ‘non-thinking types’. Creative thinking is not about how to be the most controversial or the most outlandish, it’s about thinking about the types of ideas which will get your clients message heard above competitors and which truly reflect their brand and identity. Some of those ideas may be a little more quirky than the average, but as Hyundai have learned, some of those ideas should also stay firmly ‘in the box’. Think about the idea, think about it again, then think about it some more. If you’ve even the slightest doubts that it’s not going to work, then it probably won’t.