Every once in a while, I stumble across an article on my early morning perusal of news that highlights something so outlandishly stupid, I can’t help but bring it to the table as-is, in full light and with an apple in its ugly little mouth.
Today appears to be a ‘once in a while’ kind of day.
According to a report from VisorDown, South Korean Corporation Kia has just released an advertisement for the new Kia Soul Lane-Keeping Assist. The Lane Assist itself is a great feature for the Soul, purportedly installed to increase safety and awareness in Soul users worldwide.
The Lane Assist feature is not the issue, nor are Kia’s automobiles, which I am sure are lovely.
The problem lies in the advert, which has been embedded at the top of this article.
Keep in mind the perspective of the advert: This is one of a multiple-episode series meant to show the Kia Soul’s place in all aspects of culture.
In the commercial, a driver in a white Kia Soul is overcome by a motorcyclist, geared in black and obviously planned by the advertisement’s director to fit a certain ‘troublemaker’ stereotype.
The driver is distracted by the rider sharing the lane and moves to give room – until the Kia lane-keeping alarm goes off.
At this point, the advert turns dark; in one fell swoop, the driver shouts, “This lane is taken,” swerving towards the motorist and forcing the overwhelmed rider to preserve himself by slamming on the brakes, skidding away from a gnarly accident – and what would have been an absolute mess of a Kia advert.
A bit of research later, and it appears most are equally triggered by the dangerous message of the video – at least, gauging by the 1.1k of Youtube users that have given the original video a hefty ‘thumbs down’ and followed up with a long list of commentary.
To the 14 viewers that gave the advert a ‘thumbs up,’ I ask on behalf of all motorists: Share the road, and for the love of all that’s on two wheels – keep the ego at home.
(EDIT: The advert at the top of the article is a stand-in; the original advert has been made private since the publishing of this article.)
What the shit point did they think they were making?
“This lane’s taken” is 2021’s “street’s close pizza guy”.
This brought back (vividly) some commercials over the last two years done by at least two other manufacturers (one Japanese-based and one NA-based) and both depicted the drivers being seemingly harassed by multiple black garmented riders on black dual-purpose motorcycles (its a constant look, right?), even though it was the driver who was allowing the car to move in and out of their lane (these action are captured in the video) that activated the warning systems, but allowed the ‘undesirables’ environment to be created. These ads ran for a year or more on and off; and of course, I complained to every monitoring and licensing authority I could, as did many others. Thankfully, for whatever reason, these specific ads have not been seen for some time in our market, but, as Amanda points out, they likely are being aired elsewhere. But its still not right – we need to stand up against stupidity like this,…we lose more of our identify and rights every time we don’t…
Kia folks if ur so inclined to act like this beware of my dog who always travels with me on my bike!!! He barks here and bites there!!!! Ya dig!
Right on, brother!
Video link does not work.
Also, there is this:
https://kris-spisak.com/writing-tip-every-once-and-a-while-vs-every-once-in-a-while/amp/
Hello Armand,
Thank you for the information – the corrections have been made to the article 🙂
Thanks!
Amanda
Looks like they may have pulled the ad, Your link no longer works and I can’t find it on Youtube. Good work for exposing their stupidity, thanks for keeping an eye out.
Ad on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzyznCID-QI
All I get is private video.
Hello Frank,
It appears that Kia has pulled the video off the internet, or changed the privacy setting. Thanks for the heads up!
Cheers,
Amanda
Hey Frank,
I had a lovely WebBikeWorld member send me the link to the advert, so I have taken the liberty of replacing the private advert with one you can peruse.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Amanda
In the US, the word motorist is understood to mean an auto driver. Perhaps you typed motorcyclist and got autocorrected?
Simply the best bikes are manufactured in Japan. However, many Asian cultures apparently are schooled for decades to link bikes to bike gangs.
I’ve put on a bike thousands of asphalt miles per year and had to dodge a few latent and cold blooded killers. Not always, but more than half the time, Asians are suspect. Not sure about other half as never had a chance to note the driver; and, SOME maybe pure accident, but, then again, the ‘accidental driver’ would have to be deaf as I run the slightly louder can over the stock.
OK. BUT, when go-pro cameras were mass marketed around 2007, no more dodging latent cagers, except for a couple times, one for sure was a killer.
In my case, CA DMV also helped bikes posting motor alerts around the month of May, plus the ONE behavior the CHIPS helped us with was to point out the safety of lane splitting bikes.
OK, what can be done with Kia? Take down that ad; also, CA DMV has to be aware of regional attitudes and instruct legal immigrants about bikes sharing lanes and to simply give an inch alerting the rider that he is noted.
Safety of all is the point.
If you require lane keeping support you are an incompetent driver and should have your license suspended!
This option should be illegal!
Bingo
The ad, uncblocked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzyznCID-QI
Hey Don,
Thank you for the digging!!
Cheers,
Amanda
lol What about Australia’s Bicycle passing laws in some states?
1.5m width between a bicycle and a car if the speed limit is over 60kph, that would definitely set off the lane alarm
How much ego can you have, if you drive a Kia Soul?
Or you know, maybe don’t be a douche on a bike and ride up on someone already in a lane. He wasn’t even trying to pass, just harass him.
Since when is it ok for a major corporation to say it’s ok to use your vehicle for assault on other road users. If one motorcyclist is injured by a Kia, I hope they sue the crap out of Kia for suggesting this behavior is ok. I’ve been rearended at an intersection and left-turned another time by inattentive drivers who afterwards were unapologetic for totaling out both bikes and causing bodily injury. In both instances, they got off with charges of careless driving.
Sadly, the ad is already working. Motorcyclist killed when Kia refused to share lane off an exit ramp. https://bangordailynews.com/2021/06/08/news/portland/man-killed-and-woman-critically-injured-after-motorcycle-collision-in-south-portland/
I found a repost by a kia dealer who is still using this ad to sell to cars.
https://youtu.be/UzyznCID-QI
I can’t believe what passes for ads these days… Buy a KIA, kill a motorcyclist… This is criminal.
Kia are appealing to the bullying thug demographic ie
I’ll be able to run motorcycles off the road if I buy a Kia.
And I was considering buying a Kia Stinger!
Now I wouldn’t be caught dead driving any Kia… EVER
Everyone who thinks there’s anything wrong with this commercial is watching it out of context. It is part of a series cut into short segments to highlight (tongue in cheek) each of the car’s features. The storyline is themed like a “secret agent” chase, and this scene is right in the middle, after he escapes from being locked in their trunk and taken to the dock to apparently be shot or drowned. If I had watched this clip by itself, without knowing about the rest of the series, I would be just as upset as anyone. But when watched in context, I found it to be pretty funny.
Fair points 🙂