Hyundai thinks suicide is something to joke about in new ad?

The headlines read "22 veterans commit suicide a day" along with the headlines of military suicides at an all time high. As bad as this is there are about 35,000 suicides a year in the US. (Never mind Hyundai is sold in other countries as well.) I don't think an apology will really undo the damage they did to their reputation. Thinking something like this would be funny involved a lot of people thinking the same way.

Hyundai’s shocking ad: You can’t kill yourself in our car
The car maker apologizes for a horribly tasteless ad -- but no one wants to take responsibility for it
Salon.com
BY MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
APR 26, 2013

The good news is that Ford is no longer the front-runner for the most tasteless, boneheaded ad campaign of the year. Sorry, America! South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai, and its advertising agency Innocean Worldwide Europe, has utterly stolen your glory.

In the spot, hilariously titled “Pipe Job,” a grim, middle-aged man is seen in his garage, methodically taping and running a pipe into his car. He then sits inside stoically, breathing deeply, his face a mask of weary woe. Cut to nightfall, and the man emerging from the garage very much alive. The tag line? “The new iX35 has 100 percent water emissions.” Apparently someone thinks Hyundai’s target demographic is the depressed, unsuccessfully suicidal car-buyer market. Way to own it!

After the spot came to light on AdLand recently — and a few people gently pointed out that it was the worst idea in the universe — the car company issued its inevitable apology. The first statement was a classic soft-pedal, a message from the company’s North American branch that “We understand that some people may have found the iX35 video offensive. We are very sorry if we have offended anyone.” Some. If. Whatever.

A later statement, however, was more strongly worded. “Hyundai Motor deeply and sincerely apologizes for the offensive viral ad,” it reads. “The ad was created by an affiliate advertising agency, Innocean Europe, without Hyundai’s request or approval.” But as Forbes points out, Innocean is “an in-house ad agency,” a status abundantly clear on its website.
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