Work From Home-themed Hyundai Kona ad campaign may prove divisive

Debuting during the NFL season opener, the spot touts the crossover as great for commuters

Photos courtesy Hyundai

I like the Hyundai Kona. It’s an affordable, nicely equipped crossover that makes for a perfect commuter car. It makes sense then that Hyundai is launching a new commute-focused ad campaign for the new 2024 Kona tonight during the NFL season opener.

But instead of a straightforward "make your commute better" push, Hyundai has gone all in on Covid nostalgia, positioning the new Kona as the car for people who — just now in September 2023 — are going back to the office.

The ad begins with alarmed millennials learning of their employer's return-to-work plans, with agonizing leading to dismay at the prospect of a traffic-filled commute.

Then the Kona is introduced as the cure to these end-of-lockdown blues. I’m sure the new Kona, complete with useful commuter features like adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, is a great commuter car.

But the logic of tying a family crossover national ad campaign to sadness about the end of Covid lockdowns and work-from-home seems... questionable.

Ad campaigns, especially for a mass-market product like an automobile, typically border on anodyne for fear of upsetting any portion of a potential target market. This one goes the other way.

It's as if Hyundai's ad agency hasn't looked at a calendar or news outlet for the past two years. With significant portions of the country, including Hyundai's own workforce in Alabama and Georgia, having returned to in-person work ages ago, the timing feels terribly off. The campaign seems tailored for younger, white-collar professionals who might begrudgingly be returning to their ad agency offices after extended work-from-home stints. However, the campaign may come across as deeply insulting to the wide swath of workers who never had the luxury of remote work.

In well-to-do, white-collar Orange County, the ad might receive chuckles and nods of agreement. But across vast regions of the U.S. that ended lockdown and work-from-home long ago, the ad feels two years too late and potentially divisive. Political figures like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, no stranger to bashing big corporations, could easily seize this campaign as another opportunity to bash California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Hyundai isn't merely testing the waters with this campaign; they're diving into the deep end. Launching during the NFL season opener, one of the most-watched events on television, the ad will be exposed to immediate and potentially significant scrutiny.

“For some of us a ‘commute’ spurs feelings of excitement, loss, anticipation, anxiety,” said Jason Sperling, Chief Creative Officer of INNOCEAN, Hyundai’s ad agency of record, in a press release. “As many head back to the office this year or are heading to the office for the first time, the Hyundai Kona is here for the journey.”

Why Hyundai would want to remind potential car buyers of “loss, anticipation, and anxiety” is beyond me. The irony is that the Kona is a fantastic commuter car, perfect for anyone going back to the office — but a mass-market ad campaign seems a tone-deaf place to point that out.

Earlier this year, Bud Light found itself in hot water over a minor social media partnership with Dylan Mulvaney that exploded into a PR crisis and dramatic drop in sales that shows no sign of abating. While not as inherently controversial, Hyundai's campaign has similarly heightened stakes given its high-profile launch.

At a time when the auto industry is navigating a myriad of challenges, from chip shortages to a push for electrification, the last thing Hyundai needs is a self-inflicted PR crisis. This ad campaign, developed in what appears to be a cultural and socio-political vacuum, could very well be a spectacular misstep for the automaker.

That’s a shame, too, because the Kona is a terrific car for commuters, whether they’re returning to the office for the first time in years or if they’ve been getting there all along.

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