AdWatch: Hyundai's Genesis Coupe vs an Arrow campaign misses the target..

We’ve probably all used the saying, “Great Minds Think Alike”, at some point in our lives and the same impression of déjà vu can sometimes apply with advertising campaigns too. But I bet Hyundai are wishing they’d been a little more ambitious with their recent video for the Genesis Coupe.

The premise of the campaign was to answer the question, “Can a car go faster than an arrow?” The car maker then goes on to demonstrate this with its new Genesis Coupe, which drives by an archer at the same time as the arrow is released, with the car passing the target fractions of a second before the arrow.

The advertising agency are keen to point out that the scene is 100% real – with no computer graphics or digital tricks used in making the film, but then how hard can it be? Individually the archer is merely performing an action which he performs hundreds of times each week, whilst the Genesis Coupe is driving in a straight line (at a set speed).

The only effort involved in the making the stunt is to measure the average time taken for the arrow to reach the target, then calculate the speed needed by the cars in order to pass the target first.

Compare that with Mercedes-Benz’s similar stunt, but this time with a golfer striking a ball at 178mph into a SLS AMG Roadster (driven by David Coulthard) which was moving at a rate of 120 mph.

Mercedes earned a Guinness World Record for their stunt, and Hyundai..? Perhaps they could have strapped the target on to the back of a Genesis, although even then I doubt it would have looked anywhere near as cool.

Thus far Hyundai’s ad has clocked up 226,000 views on YouTube since it was released 9 days ago, whilst Mercedes’ have earned 325,000 views in less than a day.

The timing is unfortunate for Hyundai. What would otherwise have been a reasonably watchable advert, now looks like a poor facsimile of the real thing. Perhaps great minds DON’T think alike after all..