- Hyundai pulls one of its Word Cup commercials due to complaints from Catholic organizations.
- The 30-second ad under attack is called Wedding.
- "Die Hard" commercial depicting a funeral scene is still running.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California — Hyundai Motor America has pulled a controversial advertisement, one of three made to tie in with the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. The ad purported to show services at a South American church where fans worship soccer, using Catholic-style religious rites. Predictably, it had met with outrage from Catholic organizations.
The 30-second ad, called "Wedding," showed a soccer ball wearing a crown of thorns, "communion" being administered in the form of pizza, and other trappings of Catholicism recast as soccer fanaticism.
Hyundai's "Loyalty" ad campaign was intended to "unite soccer fans' zeal for their team with Hyundai's top owner loyalty ranking in Brand Key's 2010 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index," according to the automaker. The three 30-second ads have been running on ESPN's SportsCenter and other sports programs and feature voice-overs by actor Jeff Bridges. Hyundai is also exclusive sponsor of the World Cup halftime shows — 64 of them.
Although many Catholic-oriented blogs and Web sites called the Hyundai ad "blasphemous," at least one Catholic commentator — writing on the Beliefnet.com Web site — notes that "Hyundai has a point, and a powerful one! We have made silly things like soccer a kind of religion.... Hyundai might not have intended it, but their ad preaches! I for one am not offended, except at my own anemic faith that sometimes favors sports over real acts of faith and love for God!"
Hyundai's YouTube channel asks "How Loyal Are You?" and invites soccer fans to create their own videos. Brazil, Ethiopia and even Togo fans have responded with home videos posted on the page — as has one clever fellow who has turned the ubiquitous vuvuzela noisemaker into a "tromzela" by attaching it to his trombone.
Inside Line says: Well, Hyundai got some attention to its ad campaign — and the really fun Hyundai ad, the one with the guy in his casket wearing complete soccer-fan regalia and clutching a soccer ball in his cold, dead fingers — is still running. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
ambee514 says:
08:03 PM, 04/22/2011
Lets get a link to it on you-tube or something so we can see it for ourselves?
8str8rollin says:
09:41 PM, 01/30/2011
That commercial was done in poor taste. Hyundai should have known better. I'm not even Catholic but still... that was poor taste.
yatesjo says:
06:55 PM, 06/16/2010
It seems that those who do not understand Catholicism do not see why this is very offensive to Catholics. The symbolism in the comercial is very specifically Catholic and the prayer being intoned is a a prayer used in the Latin Mass (translation of the words is "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world have mercy on us..."). Mocking people's religion is dangerous ground for a business and whoever OKed this commercial should be shown the door.
Hyundai may not have meant to offend, but whoever put the commercial together for them knew enough about the subject to know what they were doing was a mockery.
dg0472 says:
06:33 PM, 06/16/2010
Speaking of MORONS, how about people who don't even know the difference between Koreans and Japanese?
And it's not PURPORTED said church exists. The ad was very obviously based on this 2008 article on a service there:
http://www.theargentimes.com/culture/undergroundba/la-iglesia-maradoniana-argentinas-real-religion-/
To say that Hyundai purposely made fun of Catholics is just moronic.
ferenc says:
02:40 PM, 06/16/2010
hyundai marketing MORONS! any hari-kari yet?