'Hyundai Assurance'
Gaping at the Chargers/Colts game last night, I was too tired from my own football workout, with the Chicago Force, to switch channels during commercial breaks.
So I lay there listening to "Viva Viagra," watching grown men debate the meaning of "drinkability" and enduring an ad for a hair coloring product for men that creates salt-and-pepper hair. (The tagline was something like, "The gray shows you know what you're doing, the dark shows you can still do it.")
And then this commercial came on, about "Hyundai Assurance," a program whereby, "if you lose your income in the next year," the company takes your car back and you stop having to make payments.
You can imagine the argument in the boardroom about the wisdom of abandoning typically hopeful, happy car advertising and actually painting for your prospective customers a picture of them buying a car this year and having to return it next year.
But the damn thing sure got my attention—and, as an advocate of meeting people where they live in all communication, my admiration, too.
What do you think of it?
The economy’s stalled partly because we’re all uncertain about the future, personal and otherwise, and who wants to spend money in those circumstances? This acknowledges that fear and may get someone who needs a new car to take the plunge. Acknowledging reality (without describing it—we get it) is a great idea. Time for the zoomy, happy car commercials when (if) things are better.
Assuming there are no “catches”, it’s exactly the kind of communication we love and work to get our business clients/leadership to deliver. As Diane said, it’s about acknowledging reality without a bunch of details, and offering a solution that could benefit everyone involved, if the people choose to participate. 1 +1 =2. Done.
I don’t know about this one . . . . what about an ad that says: Just don’t buy a new car if you’re uncertain about your job status and the economy?
This seems to me to be part of the problem we find ourselves in: Spend now, and hope someone bails you out later if things don’t work out.
They have certain things that must happen to you in order for you to qualify for the giveback. One of them is if you declare personal bankruptcy.
If you’re that close to declaring personal bankruptcy, should you be new-car shopping in the first place?
And this comes from the most financially irresponsible person on the planet: me. I once quit my job and immediately bought a boat.
But if I couldn’t afford the payments, I wouldn’t expect to be able to just give the boat back and get my money back . . .
Steve C.
I don’t know about this one . . . . what about an ad that says: Just don’t buy a new car if you’re uncertain about your job status and the economy?
This seems to me to be part of the problem we find ourselves in: Spend now, and hope someone bails you out later if things don’t work out.
They have certain things that must happen to you in order for you to qualify for the giveback. One of them is if you declare personal bankruptcy.
If you’re that close to declaring personal bankruptcy, should you be new-car shopping in the first place?
And this comes from the most financially irresponsible person on the planet: me. I once quit my job and immediately bought a boat.
But if I couldn’t afford the payments, I wouldn’t expect to be able to just give the boat back and get my money back . . .
Steve C.
Steve, that’s a good point.
I, too, find I’m troubled by this ad—I keep worrying the problem in my head, and asking smart-ass questions, like “Well, does Hyundai also give me back my old, paid-for jalopy, or am I now on the hoof?”
It reminds me of a Renault ad from the 1960s; their cars had been so bad for so long, that the ad actually read, “For everyone who ever swore they’d never buy another Renault.”
I am thinking of Hyundai more than I ever have–but it’s in the context of this personal catastrophe that involves a vision of driving my new car to the dealer, handing over the keys and taking the bus back home with my snow scraper in my hand.
We used to call this “repossession.”
That’s right, Tad. But if you and the company make the arrangement at the time of purchase, perhaps we should call it “prepossession.”
David, to paraphrase Blue Oyster Cult, “Don’t fear the Hyundai.” My wife and I have two, and they’re great.