For those who know me, I'm a long time fan of Rap music and I haven't progressed much beyond the '90s for my rap favorites. Which makes me the perfect target audience, and sucker, for the Kia Soul commercial featuring Black Sheep's "Choice is Yours" as the centerpiece of the spot. I've never wanted to be a rodent as badly as I do after watching this commercial. They are cool as hell! And big kudos to the computer designers who made them move so well and to the creative team that decided their shirts should say "hamstAr". Awesome.
At first I was a little confused - why are the other hamsters driving toasters and washing machines and cardboard boxes? That doesn't make any damn sense. Until I realized (also known as internet searching) that those appliances are representing Kia's competitors. I've deciphered that the toaster is the Scion and the washing machine is the Nissan Cube, and I'll just assume that the cardboard box is any other wack vehicle out there.
To be honest, I'm not sure if Kia intends to target an early 30's crowd, which is the audience that will most relate to Black Sheep, or if they are just capitalizing on the current mainstream popularity of hip-hop. Regardless, this spot is a great attempt at leveling the playing field with Scion, which is know as a "Pimp Ur Ride" kind of car and likely has the current stronghold on the hip-hop loving community.
I'm not in the market for purchasing a car, but if I was, this commercial would actually put Kia on my list. At least that's my 2 cents.
PS - for other "The Wire" fans, I also love the fact that they're on "Hamsterdam" street. Ha!
And here's the original Black Sheep video for old time's sake! "Dres. D-R-E-S. Yes I guess I could start."
