Hyundai's "First Date" With Kevin Hart

The "First Date" Hyundai Genesis ad during Super Bowl 50 was absolutely genius. If you haven't seen it, It features Kevin Hart in a comically driven Hyundai Genesis commercial about his daughter's first date. A young man arrives to pick up Kevin Hart’s daughter, and when they are leaving he offers them the keys to his Hyundai Genesis. Little does the young man know that that car has a unique feature that allows Kevin Hart to actually track them everywhere they go. Each time the young man attempts any sort of intimacy with his date, Kevin Hart is there watching. Eventually he decides to end the date early because of the extravagant effort the father goes through to tag along. I think the part that scared the young man the most was when Kevin Hart was in a helicopter saying “you messed with the wrong daddy” as the young man leaned in for a kiss. When the kids came home, Kevin Hart acted as if nothing happened, and the young man left scared.

Now, let me tell you exactly why this advertisement was perfect. First, This ad appeals to all types of target audiences, ranging from teens to adults, all genders, and all ethnicities. It is truly a universal advertisement. Second, it was one of the first commercials of the Super Bowl, and Hyundai captured the audience early on with the familiar comedic styling of Kevin Hart. I mean, who doesn't love Kevin Hart? They used a very well known comedian to immediately hook the audience through the remaining minute of the ad. Third, Hyundai was actually the sponsor of Super Bowl 50, so this advertisement set up the many new Hyundai commercials that would be aired throughout the game. You see one funny commercial, and you're bound to assume the next one (by Hyundai) will be just as good. Lastly, The commercial highlighted a very unique feature of the Hyundai Genesis, in a very light and outgoing manner. They highlighted a car safety feature by taking out the fear factor of a stolen car or a robbery. By taking them out of a dangerous environment, and into a suburban setting, it showed the viewer that even they could in fact utilize this car's feature, and that it isn’t only for people living in dangerous conditions. Hyundai lightened the mood by incorporating every father’s fear of his baby daughter on her first date. This generalized the audience immediately, expanding the range of their target audience by presenting them with something fairly relatable. In this instance, it didn’t matter the ethnicity, the gender, or the age of the characters in this commercial because anybody can relate to the story line. I’d assume most people have had an encounter with a significant other’s family, and I'm sure we all know how awkward that was at first. If you are a parent, this advertisement would most likely get you thinking about the safety of your child, and the people they hang out with. While pondering this question, I’m sure at some point you’d be thinking about what car your child was driving, and if that car has the safety features in line with those of the Hyundai Genesis. In other words, Hyundai knew what you were going to be thinking, before you were thinking it...Scary right?

As we dissect the advertisement further, we could say that the average consumer of this product would be targeted to the everyday family man. In this case, Kevin Hart’s character, the father. In today’s society (although it is changing) men are seen as the caretakers of the family, along with the main financial contributor. By displaying Kevin Hart as a "hero" to dads around the world by protecting his daughter from the evil boyfriend, dads will most likely look deeper into the safety features of the car they own at home. Everything is connected. In a subtle way, Hyundai did in fact target the family man, but produced a universal advertisement to open communication within families about the safety of the car they currently own. Instead of taking the somewhat boring and expected approach of an ad about an average citizen getting his car stolen and tracking it down, Hyundai creatively developed a campaign to foster communication about car safety within their home. Not only did Hyundai attack the so called "wallet" of the family, they touched on values of safety to ultimately guilt trip the"wallet" into being used.