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Hyundai Viral Ad: Funny? Sexist? Both?


Posted on Aug 20, 2009 by Kaiser Kuo | Filed under: Humor, Society, Viral Video Ads

This seed ad from Hyundai — they make little effort to disguise its intention — is part public service announcement, with a list of driving no-nos, and part plug for the Elantra. It’s been viewed about a half-million times in the 24 hours since it was posted, with the overwhelming majority of votes going thumbs-up, so I’m sure Hyundai’s been pretty happy about it. No need to explain what’s happening in this highly visual advert, but I’m guessing something like this wouldn’t fly in the U.S. or elsewhere in the developed West, where feminist sensibilities would almost certainly be offended. We have your stereotypically dizzy good-looking female driver who makes about every mistake in the book during a routine traffic stop: not wearing her seat belt, wearing high heels while driving, forgetting to put her parking brake on, all that.

Interestingly, in the comments section, no one seems object to the fairly blatant sexism in the ad. In fact, one comment I glimpsed said something like, “Female drivers are all like this. Especially the ones who’ve just started driving.”

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1 Response to Hyundai Viral Ad: Funny? Sexist? Both?

  1. How to get a billion views for your video. | Ideas will travel.

    [...] be famous. Here is a little viral ad for the Hyundai Elantra that racked up more than 500.000 views in a single day on Youku. Still trying to figure what’s more impressive. The numbers or the [...]

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