Contracted Hyundai advertising agency, Innocean was manadated to create an ad to show off the new ix35’s fairly amazing 100% water emission feature… And they ballsed up. Or did they?

The ad, titled “Pipe Job” features a man attempting to commit suicide in his car by gassing himself. The ad ends with the man giving up on his attempt, because, as the screen text tells us, the ix35 has 100% water emissions. Jislaaik, guys.

The advert has been online for a week, but was pulled in the early hours of this morning due to a strong public backlash.

Hyundai released this statement:

Hyundai understands that the video has caused offence. We apologise unreservedly. The video has been taken down and will not be used in any of our advertising or marketing.

The advert drew some heavy critisism, one in particular was made public by disgruntled copywriter, Holly Brockwell. Brockwell shared her story her on blog Copybot.com, explaining how the advert stirred emotions in her as her father had committed suicide this way. She wrote:

As an advertising creative, I would like to congratulate you on achieving the visceral reaction we all hope for. On prompting me to share it on my Twitter page and my blog. I would not like to congratulate you on making me cry for my dad.

When your ad started to play, and I saw the beautifully-shot scenes of taped-up car windows with exhaust feeding in, I began to shake. I shook so hard that I had to put down my drink before I spilt it. And then I started to cry. I remembered looking out of the window to see the police and ambulance, wondering what was happening. I remember mum sitting me down to explain that daddy had gone to sleep and would not be waking up, and no, he wouldn’t be able to take me to my friend’s birthday party next week. No, he couldn’t come back from heaven just for that day, but he would like to if he could. I remember finding out that he had died holding my sister’s soft toy rabbit in his lap.

Outrage aside, the ad has definitely been a success in terms of pure attention. And that might be all that Hyundai cares about six months from now, when they report on their bottom line earnings.

[Source: The Guardian, Copybot.com]