Analysis of Humor and Music in Hyundai's 'First Date' Advertisement

This report provides a detailed analysis of the Hyundai 'First Date' commercial, focusing on its marketing strategies. The report examines the use of humor, particularly through Kevin Hart's performance, and how it connects with the audience. It delves into the effectiveness of using an old, popular song to evoke nostalgia and appeal to parents. The analysis also covers the use of close-up shots to highlight the car's features and design. The commercial's structure, from its humorous content to its emphasis on the car's features, is discussed. The report concludes that the commercial successfully uses these elements to create brand awareness and connect with viewers, making it a persuasive advertisement that complements the car model and its features. The report references relevant marketing literature to support its claims.

ENGLISH 1
Marketing campaigns are fundamental part of an entity’s marketing department’s
functions in order to reach your customers, clients, leads and thereby increasing the sales (Al-
Dmour et. al, 2016). The present work is aimed at evaluating the advertisement of the brand
Hyundai namely the 'First Date,’ which employs the famous actor and comedian Kevin Hart
in the lead and aims to appeal the audience in a humorous manner. The thesis statement of the
work is “advertisement appeals to the elderly people by using Humor, an Old angry-
emotional popular music, and a close-up shot, to make the audience understand the
functionality of the product.”
The entity had released the commercial back in the year 2016. The manner used in the
advertisement to attract the audience is humour as evident from the involvement of
protagonist Kevin Hart as well. It is significant to note that one of the most basic ways
through which audiences are connected to each other and to the brand is the laughter and
humor (Strick, Holland, van Baaren, Knippenberg & Dijksterhuis, 2013). Because of the fact
that humor grabs attention, it is often used in advertising. Further to state, humor elicits a
positive emotion like laughter in the minds of the audiences, which creates a constructive
impression about the product and has the tendency to be widely remembered (Chan, 2011).
The release of the commercial of Hyundai during the Super Bowl 2016, which is watched by
more than a hundred million people is clearly aimed at attracting the large audience at once.
Kevin Hart effectively portrays the role of the father who is skeptical on his daughter going
on a date and supports the role with the funny reactions, and actions that can appeal the
audience of every age and gender. The humor in the advertisement is evident not just in its
content, but also the body language of the actors, music, as well as the expressions
demonstrated through the close up shots.
The choice of the music, jingles or different sounds largely affects the way viewers
perceive the brand on different levels and through different means (Krishna, A., Cian, L., &
Sokolova, 2016). In addition, the same holds a capability to influence the emotional response
to a television commercial. Of all the commercials released, some of them get stuck in the
minds of the audiences and are remembered more than other, even after years. The next
unique feature that makes the Hyundai ad ‘First Date’ commercial a hit is the use of the “old
angry-emotional popular music.” The commercial involves the song ‘Another One Bites the
Dust’ which is known to be the Queen’s 1980 global hit. As the commercial is designed from
the point of view of the parents, and hence the choice of the said music. The use of the old
school music generates the feeling of nostalgia in the minds of the viewers (Chou & Lien,

ENGLISH 2
2010). The music is carefully chosen to appeal to the parents and being a 1980 global hit, it
can be easily recognized and further complements the idea of humor in the content of the
advertisement.
The commercial further employs the technique of close up shots. It is significant to
note that one of the most significant concepts of marketing is to create and maintain connect
with the audience, throughout the campaign. In order to connect the audience with the
product, it is significant to portray its uniqueness and significance. In terms of the
automobiles, the look of the product and the unique features makes the product different from
other similar products. The commercial is aimed at advertising the one of the prime and
unique applications in the car namely the Car Finder. The later section of the advertisement
shows the car from the front and the sides, and thus focusing on the design and the built of
the vehicle. In addition, the luxury interiors of the car are also showed with the aid of the
close up shots, to give a complete insight into look of the car through the advertisement. The
close up shots of the exaggerated expressions of the father and supporting actors are further
adopted to entertain the people and to receive the attention of the audience. The commercial
finally ends with the view of the car, thus making it completely focused on the product, in
order to retain the audience’s connect to the product. The feature of the car that is the car
finder is chiefly aimed at parents. The brand has tried to portray with the advertisement that it
is a family brand, and while it is popular for creating the affordable cars, it can also make a
luxury sedan. Thus, the advertisement is designed in a way to highlight the features of the car
and built of the same, as well as to curate a content that stays with the audience’s mind for a
long time.
Thus, it can be stated that marketing campaigns in whatever way play a phenomenal
role in the generation of the brand awareness among the consumers mainly. One of the most
appealing means is the television commercial that not only attracts a large audience at once,
but the visuals in combination with the sounds makes the advertising more appealing. The
work analyzed the effectiveness of the TV commercial Hyundai ‘First Date’ which is known
to be one of the popular 2016 hits. The analysis aids to conclude that the content has been
effectively curated with different shades of humor and old school music to appeal the
audience. The commercial can be stated to be extremely persuasive and is complementary to
the model of the car, the sound, the shape and the lights.

ENGLISH 3
References
Al-Dmour, H., Al-Madani, S., Alansari, I., Tarhini, A. and Al-Dmour, R. H. (2016). Factors
affecting the effectiveness of cause-related marketing campaign: moderating effect of
sponsor-cause congruence. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 8(5), 114-127.
Chan, F. Y. (2011). Selling through entertaining: The effect of humour in television
advertising in Hong Kong. Journal of Marketing Communications, 17(5), 319-336.
Chou, H. Y., & Lien, N. H. (2010). Advertising effects of songs' nostalgia and lyrics'
relevance. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 22(3), 314-329.
Kevin Hart Hyundai 'First Date' Super Bowl 2016 TV Commercial {VIDEO} Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wapLaF5jmrU
Krishna, A., Cian, L., & Sokolova, T. (2016). The power of sensory marketing in advertising.
Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, 142-147.
Strick, M., Holland, R. W., van Baaren, R. B., Knippenberg, A. V., & Dijksterhuis, A.
(2013). Humour in advertising: An associative processing model. European Review of
Social Psychology, 24(1), 32-69.