Who knew hamsters could be so cocky? Take a look at the thuggish, ruggish rodents in this ad for the Kia Soul:
After the jump, I’ll explain why this commercial rocks my face.
Seriously, it cracks me up. That’s partly because I have a thing for cute, anthropomorphic animals, but it’s also because I love the absurdity of three hamsters getting gangsta in their Kia. I mean, the genius of :40-:42 alone… with H-Tweezy in the backseat, popping his head from side to side, tapping his paw to the dance beat while a light in the car door flashes in time. Not even RuPaul has this much self-confidence. Don’t these hamsters realize they’re hamsters?
But that’s just it, right? This commercial is funny because it’s so disproportionate. Hamsters are little animals. We dominate them so completely that we build their worlds for them, shooing them through mazes of plastic tubes and then clapping when they run. Therefore, seeing a hamster behave like a bad-ass is so audacious that it’s funny.
You have to like a creature that refuses to acknowledge the lowly station we’ve given it… that instead envisions itself as the king of the hip-hop highway.
That brazen, endearing confidence also extends to the hamsters’ ride. Because really… a Kia? Is almost like the hamster of cars. Or at the very least, it’s not the first thing you picture when someone says “pimpmobile.”
In this commercial, however, the Kia Soul is presented as the only vehicle in the world that doesn’t breed rodent-in-a-wheel conformity. Those hamster wheels we see on the road could be Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, whatever. The point is, they’re not Kias, so by this ad’s standards, they’re lame.
Again, you have to admire a car company that refuses to accept the less-than-ferocious image the public imposes on it. That attitude is scrappy. It’s cool.
So let’s say I’m a middle-class American who can’t afford a luxury car, but I can afford a Kia Soul that starts at under $14,000. I may realize I’m not driving a champagne vehicle, but this ad encourages me not to care. This ad encourages me to raise my bottle of sparkling white grape juice out of my moonroof and wave it side to side like it’s a damn magnum of Cristal.
In other words, the ad encourages a perceptual shift in which “little guys” like hamsters, Kias, and the middle class embrace their ability to be awesome. There’s a knowing joke in there—you can’t take yourself that seriously if you’re rolling in Lil’ Hammy’s whip—but that lightheartedness is just another badge of confidence. If you drive a Kia Soul, the commercial tells us, then you know yourself, love yourself, and get down with yourself. If consumers buy the message, then Kia’s sales could explode. Middle class affordability could be hipper than ever.
Too bad I don’t need a car in New York City and that my building won’t let me have pets. Otherwise, The Critical Coundition would be hosting the hamster grand prix up in here, featuring some totally souped up Kia Souls. Word.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Fraulein N // May 18, 2009 at 10:35 am
I can’t decide if I like this commercial. On the one hand, it is funny and cute. On the other … those giant hamsters are kinda creepy.
2 JennyM // May 18, 2009 at 10:52 am
H-Tweezy? Awesome. I love this commercial, too. That little “‘Sup, homes?” head-jerk the one in the passenger seat gives when he rolls down the window? A thing of beauty. Up with hamsters! And Kias!
3 Lisa // May 18, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Mark! I totally agree with you on the hamsters. When I first saw this commercial, I had to rewind and record it on the DVR to show Gregg! I think gansta hamsters are awesome. A Kia, not so much. As a matter of fact, I was so caught up in what the hamsters were doing the first few times I saw this, I SAW the Kia ad, but it didn’t register. I kept talking about the cute commercial, but I couldn’t remember the product. Maybe details are not my strong suit!
4 gee_gee // May 18, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Hamsters are cute when they’re tiny. When they grow big enough to drive a car it is time to run for the hills. It would be one thing if the cars were tiny hamster sized cars (like a mini cooper). But this commercial leads me to believe that the hamsters have taken over the world.
Question: Where are the people?!?!
5 Mark Blankenship // May 18, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Hey Lisa… the fact that you didn’t remember the product means this commercial may not be as effective as the company wants it to be. Interesting. Has anybody else had that reaction?
And gee_gee… Do you think it’s possible that the humans were destroyed in a hamster uprising?
6 ferretrick // May 18, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Yes, I couldn’t remember the product either, but I’m not that interested in cars. That might have had something to do with it.
I think this ad is cute, but it also has the potential to be one of those ads that starts off cute, and then they keep making more of them, until they become annoying as hell. Think The Energizer Bunny.
7 Debi // May 18, 2009 at 7:34 pm
My wife and I love this ad. I looked for the song on i-tunes (do you know the name?). We even pause Tivo to watch it which never happens. It did take a couple of watchings to remember the car company but I knew it was for a car.
8 Mark Blankenship // May 18, 2009 at 10:22 pm
@Debi — There seem to be multiple versions of the ad, but the one in this post (and the only one I’ve seen on television) features the song “A New Way to Roll” by Marz. (Appropriate, given the ad’s tagline.) I don’t see the song on iTunes, but it seems inevitable that it will be commercially available.
According to my quick internet research, other versions of the ad feature one of the following songs:
Goldfish – Fort Knox
Calvin Harris – Colours
MSTRKRFT – Bounce
9 Michael // May 19, 2009 at 12:33 pm
For not the first time, I find Mark’s analysis more compelling than the thing he’s analyzing. (What did Berlioz say about turning poet to praise prose?) While the divine Mr. M. waxes rhapsodic about the sneakily beguiling fantasy invoked by the animation, my sympathies go to the advertising firm who had to try to sell this boxy-looking, pluperfectly unfashionable car. The ONLY sale point they make that I can see (along with the fact that the ugly car has unnamed extras and bluetooth) is that it’s cheap (a fact carefully positioned as the penultimate piece of textual information in the ad). Beyond that, what–it moves? It comes in red? It’s improbably positioned in this ad as rebelliously cool, even though it’s not? I can’t decide if this is brazenly catchy marketing or an all-too-open cri de coeur: in a miserable economy, we’re selling a hopelessly unimpressive car! Call out the cute furry animals! Animate them! Heeeellllllpp!
10 turner // May 23, 2009 at 2:46 am
If KIA doesn’t give you a KIA after this, Mark, justice has been wronged.
(notice I did not call it a car?)
Leave a Comment