Sustainable Saunders

Hyundai recently launched a new advertising campaign for its hybrid Sonata, entitled “Live Smart”. The original concept behind this campaign is that the production of the commercials are “as energy efficient as possible”, or as the cars they feature. The first time I saw a Hyundai Live Smart commercial I was filled with an overwhelming number of thoughts and considerations.

Hyundai Live Smart Commercial

The strongest of my initial reactions to the Live Smart commercial was to question its sincerity. Although the commercial was done very elegantly,  the concept seemed gimmicky. The amount of energy saved by making the commercial “Live Smart” style has to be microscopic compared to the amount that will be saved by its new line of hybrid vehicles. Nonetheless, the commercial focuses on its production process for a third of its duration. I believe this advertising campaign would have more success if it revealed its production methods in a less obvious and self-righteous manner. In my opinion, the conclusion to the commercial undermines its earlier mention of the car’s innovative environmental benefits.

I was also interested to see if the commercial was in fact, as green as it claimed. After further inquiry, it turns out that it is.

Apparently, Hyundai reduced its CO2 emissions by 96% versus traditional production methods and invested in carbon offsets for the remaining 4%, thus making the entire commercial campaign with no carbon footprint.