How Hyundai's Despicable Suicide Advert Made Me Cry At Work

Update: Hyundai has released an official apology and has pulled the advert.

The face of a man attempting to commit suicide

This blog post was written by track day social media account manager and marketing executive Hannah Burgess.

If you haven’t seen the - now viral - Hyundai ‘suicide’ video (below) let me fill you in.

I lost both of my parents to suicide when I was entering the pinnacle of my teens. The reason? They thought I'd be better off without them. But hey, this is a blog about an insensitive advertising stunt, so I won't go on about my past in too much detail. My experience does, however, allow me to comment on Hyundai's major gaffe from a first hand experience.

Suicide isn’t something to laugh at, joke about or use to advertise a car. Suicide is serious: 1,000,000 people around the world commit suicide each year. That’s one suicide every 40 seconds. That’s not to mention the pain brought to families who are affected by it, like little old me.

The video (for those who don’t have the heart to watch it, I don’t blame you) shows a man enter his car with a close up of a taped pipe into the window.

This pipe is taped to the inside of the car's window

He looks tired and unhappy: well, he’s about to end his life after all. He’s breathing in the fumes from the car in a bid to end his life. There are tears in his eyes and at this point, my eyes are also in floods of tears. I'm watching this video unfold at work and start to cry. As I do so, everyone is looking at me thinking I’m crazy...

The man in the video doesn't die (hooray!). He walks away unharmed because of Hyundai’s fantastic zero emissions car that can’t kill you. How fantastic. The character looks wholeheartedly disappointed that he's still breathing, and slumps back to his house (damn zero emissions, eh?).

Disappointed with his failed suicide effort, this man slumps back inside his house

At the end of the video I felt sick. I felt morbid. I was teary, emotional and I wanted my parents. I just wanted my Mum back to tell me some stupid joke and to hear her laugh. I wanted her to tell me off for not cleaning my room and wanted my Dad to swan in and help me sweep it all under my bed. Every track day I go on I wish he was there with me. I wish he was teaching me how to be a ‘driving God’ and to tell me to stop braking too early. I miss them. And I was torn apart by a cruel video trying to sell a car.

I don’t need to watch a video to be reminded about suicide. I miss them every day, I see things that remind me of them and the fact that they’re not here. They weren’t there to see me pass my driving test, not here to help me build my track car, not there to share my first alcoholic beverage with me on my 18th birthday, nor my 21st or any future birthday for that matter. They won't see me get married, won't give me away at the alter. I won't have a ‘father daughter dance’.

And while I chose to watch this video, I don't need to see something as graphic and distasteful as someone actually trying to end their life on my TV screen; to remind me what of what happened, and to show me what I no longer have.

I understand that the fault lies with the agency. Thank you Innocean and Director Paul Grey, you insensitive swines. It was “never meant to go out”, but this video has gone viral and agencies need to take a long hard look at themselves for creating it in the first place. And you Jamie Colonna from Innocean who has an award in ‘caring’ - were you caring when this video was created?

To all advertising agencies: know where to draw the line. This is one ad campaign that's gone too far.

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