hyundai in firestorm over controversial 'suicide' ad

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A car advert which features a man attempting suicide in his garage before being thwarted by a zero emission engine has been pulled after prompting fierce criticism.

The viral campaign for Hyundai, which was posted online last week, includes a graphic depiction of a man trying to end his life. The South Korean car company pulled the advert this afternoon after an advertising creative whose own father committed suicide in the same way launched a passionate online attack on it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/agency-pulls-viral-hyundai-zeroemission-car-ad-featuring-man-attempting-suicide-8588650.html

Prodigious

You'd really start to wonder where they hire these clowns in PR.

Icepick

And?

humbert

Well it does have the second (I thought first but wikipedia says no) highest suicide rate in the world so it's a real life-saver.

DrumSteve

Firestorm?


Sounds legit.

Seachmall

It's a clever ad, if not a little insensitive.

NuckingFacker

Ad pulled or ad not pulled, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Bet this getz more attention for their low-em vehicles, one way or another. People will go "Tut-Tut - hmm, zero emission Hyundai eh?"

Arcsin

And we are all talking about it. Straight out of the Michael o'Leary school of advertising.

Vito Corleone

It reminds me of the type of scenes you would see in them short films that are sometimes shown on RTE really really late at night.

IceFjoem

Well, now that it's been pulled it'll probably go viral faster, I reckon this was the plan from the start. The message of low emissions is inseparable from its controversy as well, pretty clever advertising if you ask me.

galwayjohn89

It's always going to be a touchy subject but I don't find it too insensitive.

My name is URL

Arcsin wrote: »

And we are all talking about it. Straight out of the Michael o'Leary school of advertising.

They're aim isn't to get people talking about the ad. It's to make them want to buy into it.

People can be put off buying a product or brand for life just by an advert.. regardless of how many are talking about it.

Personally, I don't think it's the worst of ads but I can certainly see why people would be sensitive about it.

Duggy747

Don Draper wouldn't approve.

kraggy

I thought it was near impossible to kill yourself that way nowadays no matter what make/model car you use as supposedly catalytic coverters mean that the poisons necessary to do the job aren't plentiful enough in the fumes that are expelled.

Maybe some mechanic can clarify it for us?

Also, strange ad coming from Korea, where 15,000 people die by suicide each year. The overall population is only 50 million.

humbert

kraggy wrote: »

I thought it was near impossible to kill yourself that way nowadays no matter what make/model car you use as supposedly catalytic coverters mean that the poisons necessary to do the job aren't plentiful enough in the fumes that are expelled.

Maybe some mechanic can clarify it for us?

A guy that works for a relation of mine attempted suicide that way and failed. The doctor told the relation that his failure was down to the catalytic converter. He's tried since and failed though so he might just suck at committing suicide.

miss no stars

Wow. It's clever and all that, and I get that they obviously wanted a bit of controversy to make it go viral... But it is just one of those things that never should have been done.

ETA: I just can't believe how bad it is. It's so wrong.

Uriel.

FFS what is everyone's problem!!!!

The poor guy was just try to create his own steam room at home. He'd didn't realise that Hyundai's engines are so under powered that he couldn't create enough steam :pac:

NuckingFacker

I thought the "red light" camera videos in that ^ sequence were far more noteworthy. Bl00dy hell:eek:

FoxT

100% Water emissions?

I guess that makes me only about 50% as environmentally friendly as the Hyundai...

Nabber

You can't have attempted suicide as a advert. But you can have soaps on TV get a few episodes out of it. Both trying to make money, one is tolerated the other is not.....

Cienciano

It's a clever ad. Because if I owned a Hyundai I'd probably want to kill myself too.

Pherekydes

humbert wrote: »

Well it does have the second (I thought first but wikipedia says no) highest suicide rate in the world so it's a real life-saver.

The Hyundai? Which model? I have a Trajet. I needs to know...

monkeysnapper

What a terrible advert . So insensitive , Who ever came up with that should be lined up against a wall and shot

galwayjohn89

monkeysnapper wrote: »

What a terrible advert . So insensitive , Who ever came up with that should be lined up against a wall and shot

Why do you say that? It's a fact of life that people commit suicide and for far too long it's been a taboo to talk about.

miss no stars

Vuzuggu wrote: »

Why do you say that? It's a fact of life that people commit suicide and for far too long it's been a taboo to talk about.

So the best solution is to make it an advertising gimmick that completely detracts from the seriousness of the situation?

frag420

monkeysnapper wrote: »

What a terrible advert . So insensitive , Who ever came up with that should be lined up against a wall and shot

Or perhaps forced to shoot himself in an ironic twist!!

Pherekydes

monkeysnapper wrote: »

What a terrible advert . So insensitive , Who ever came up with that should be lined up against a wall and shot

:eek: That would be a trajety.

Capt'n Midnight

You won't see Foxconn or any of the people they make electronics for making ads like that.

galwayjohn89

miss no stars wrote: »

So the best solution is to make it an advertising gimmick that completely detracts from the seriousness of the situation?

If it gets people talking and removes the taboo I'm all for it.

It is quite well shot.

errlloyd

I agree the ad is crap, but I am actually not quite sure what the difference between depiction of suicide in this advert is and the indentical depiction of suicide in the music video for "High Hopes"

One is promoting a car, one is promoting a band, but both are commercial entities?