Hyundai Pulls Ad That Conjures Up King Case
A day before its national television premiere, Hyundai officials Wednesday yanked an advertisement featuring a Hyundai automobile in a high-speed police chase to avoid appearing insensitive about the Rodney G. King beating incident.
The commercial will be sent to a research company to determine whether test audiences are offended. The testing process should take at least two weeks, said Bill Wolf, spokesman for Hyundai Motor America in Fountain Valley.
Wolf said the decision to postpone the commercial came after community leaders and advertising executives questioned the sensitivity of the ad. King was videotaped being beaten by several Los Angeles police officers who pulled over his 1988 Hyundai Excel on March 3.
“We had a meeting this morning to consider whether we should perhaps remove the commercial and substitute something else right now,” Wolf said. “That is the approach we are going to take.”
Wolf said the advertisement was unrelated to the highly publicized King incident. “The copy was tested in January (before King was beaten), and there wasn’t any problem with it,” he said. But Wolf added that the company is “sensitive to what is going on in the Los Angeles area.”
The commercial shows an unmarked police car--a Hyundai Sonata--chasing a BMW sedan. An unseen narrator says the Hyundai handles as well as a BMW sports sedan. The final scene in the 30-second spot shows the driver of the BMW being frisked as his hands are spread across the rear of the Sonata.
The Hyundai Excel model he was driving became an issue early in the King case. Police originally said the Altadena motorist was clocked on the freeway at speeds in excess of 110 m.p.h.before he was pulled over in Lake View Terrace. The claim surprised some Hyundai dealers and owners, who did not believe that the Excel was capable of those speeds. Police later revised their account, saying King’s car was traveling at 65 m.p.h.
The commercial was to air Thursday during “Cheers” on NBC. Wolf said the company will substitute another new advertisement that plugs special editions of its three models--the Excel, Sonata and Scoupe.
