hankyoreh

By Ahn Soo-chan, staff reporter

A middle-aged man is working with a rubber hose in the back of his garage. He has taped the hose in place so that it points inside his vehicle. He sits in the driver’s seat with various emotions playing across his face. He closes his eyes. Time goes by, and he gets up again. Looking defeated, he shuffles back out of the garage and into the house. Subtitles appear: “The new iX35 with 100% water emissions.”

This was an online promotional video for the ix35, a sports utility model with a hydrogen battery that Hyundai Motor is releasing in Europe.

On Apr. 26, overseas media including the BBC reported that Hyundai Motor had pulled an advertisement depicting a suicide attempt after receiving complaints.

The commercial, which was produced by Hyundai Motor’s ad agency Innocean Europe, was intended to become a viral commercial that would spread among internet users. But the strategy backfired when criticism from those users caused the commercial to be removed.

British woman Holly Brockwell, 27, a freelancer who works in advertising, saw the video. On Apr. 25, she posted an open letter on her blog directed at Hyundai and Innocean.

“I began to shake. I shook so hard that I had to put down my drink before I spilt it. And then I started to cry,” she said. “And I wanted my dad.”

In 1990, Holly’s father had committed suicide by filling his car with exhaust fumes.

Controversy spread starting with the thousands of people who read her letter. In the end, on the afternoon of Apr. 25, Hyundai took down the commercial. However, a number of videos with titles like “Hyundai suicide commercial” can still be viewed on YouTube.

“Hyundai Motor deeply and sincerely apologizes for the offensive video,” the Hyundai Motor main office in South Korea said. “The film runs counter to our values as a company and as members of the community.

"The video was created by an affiliate advertising agency without the request or approval of the Hyundai main office or one of our local offices in Europe," Hyundai stated.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]