Kia has redesigned the Soul people-mover (aka Urban Passenger Vehicle) for 2014 and to go with that, its furry icons have likewise received a makeover to match. In a new 60-second ad spot, which debuted Sunday during the MTV Video Music Awards (sometime after the Miley Cyrus hoedown), the hamsters appear to be much slimmer and more beau font in their sleek, Ethan Hunt-like duds as they appear on the red carpet after emerging from the new Soul.
The hamsters, of course, underwent a complete makeover to the tune of Lady Gaga’s new single Applause during the sixty second spot. Our thoughts on Gaga’s musical talents aside, the ad spot was a solid, if questionable, resurrection of the hamsters as a symbol for the revitalized car from Kia.
It is hard to pinpoint what the thought process behind using hamsters as the symbol for a new car from Korea could be, though when they first appeared in 2009 it was to (assumed) fun being leveled at the Korean automaker’s image and the world in general. Whatever the reasoning, the hamster theme stuck as Kia kept pimping commercial after commercial featuring the Soul’s fur-covered mascots.
Somehow, in this latest rendition, the “new” hamsters are supposed to signify the newly-refined Kia Soul for 2014. The commercial aired on Sunday will hit movie screens nationally this Friday.
Because of or in spite of (your choice) the hamsters, the Kia Soul is a hit among the Generation Y crowd. According to Michael Sprague, executive vice president of marketing and communications at Kia America, the hamsters hit their mark among those who are young or young at heart “..with their baggy clothes, excellent taste in music and slick dance moves.”
We’ll leave it to you to decide whether baggy clothes, Lady Gaga, and the moves these rodents sport are entertaining. Go ahead. We won’t judge.
