The "Message" is irrelevant

Kia Australia trys to reproduce the success of Kia America. The Kia U.S. commercial created by David&Goliath borrowed rather effectively from the power that is Hip Hop culture and music in the world today. The agency Innocean in conjunction with director Tim Bullock, seem to miss the point of connection and giving us a reason to care or to be slightly entertained. They certainly picked one of the most powerful tracks in music history and somehow managed to make it small and almost sappy. The song itself is about life in the gully inner city, with all the pain, strife and dire hopelessness that comes with it. The commercials is about a hapless fellow taking a ride in his sub-compact that is so small there is apparently not enough room for his honey-do-list. When Frankensteined together with two of the incisive track's original rappers it just sorta looks like a suburbanite car-jacked to down on the luck Kia-driving ex-rappers. Then he proceeds to force them (at perhaps hidden gun-point) to listen to him take a Ginsu knife to their music. I see a huge lost opportunity here. My biggest question is why? Why these rappers? why this song? Why did they do this? Is this just another example of Art Directors and other creatives using their boyhood idols in a spot wether it's relevant or not? Will it move cars off the lot in Australia?


The original:

Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five - The Message

cred:
Innocean, Australia
General Manager: Amanda Wheeler
Senior Copywriter: Robin Feiner
Senior Art Director: Guy Collins
Agency Producer: John Lamble
Group Account Director: Simon Hornery
Account Director: Janine Allan
Production Company: Prodigy
Director: Tim Bullock
Executive Producer: Jonathan Samway
Producer: Julianne Shelton
D.O.P: Keith Wagstaff
Art Director: Aaron Crothers
Post Production: Frame, Set and Match
Editor: Adam Wills

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