It's tough to make babies the star of car commercials, seeing as they're a long way from driving age. Not that advertisers haven't tried. Now, Hyundai jumps in with perhaps the oddest baby-themed car ad yet—and certainly the most high-tech.
Meet Exobaby, the nameplate's new, clearly-intended-to-be-viral hero.
Thanks to a fancy robotic exoskeleton, this technological toddler has "amazing abilities that ordinary babies can never perform," Hyundai says. He's a minor Lee Majors, zipping around his home like a $6 million baby—part human, part cyborg, all impervious to danger. He probably drinks Evian. Some of his skills, like Blind Spot Detection, seem car related. Others, like Bath Evade, don't. But when he parallel parks into his bed, the message is clear.
"Oh, let's be honest," says the movie-trailer-style voiceover. "The baby in the suit is you in a new Hyundai!"
Oh, let's be honest. The ad is weird. But knowing how people feel about babies—and how cartoonishly overproduced this thing is, seeking the broadest possible appeal—it may well reach millions. (If it does, it would be the second straight hit for the brand from The Viral Factory, whose June film "The Empty Car Convoy" has topped 11 million YouTube views.)
Just wait until Honda's Asimo sees this kid. He'll crush him like a bug.
CREDITS
Client: Hyundai
Agency: The Viral Factory