Hyundai Questioned Everything – and came up with a digital key that unlocks a door.
Pretty Impressive. But what I love most about the campaign is that it stars the voice actor for Nick Wilde, the small-time con artist Fox in the movie Zootopia, Jason Bateman! I thought they should have made a concerted Zootopia-to-Hyundai connection and hire Shakira, who sang the Zootopia title track, “Try Everything”, to do a cameo in the ad. Or if not Shakira, save some cash and feature a CGI Gazelle somewhere in the spot (Shakira is a gazelle in Zootopia). It just would have given the campaign some longer legs… something else to talk about, you know? I can just see the blogosphere lighting up with strange conspiracy theories: “Zootopia references by Hyundai – what’s the significance?” or “Shakira reticent on Gazelle placement in new SUV spot”.
It’s not the first commercial Bateman’s done on TV. Bateman’s first appearance was in a cereal commercial for Golden Grahams in 1980. Watch it here and prepare to smile. Made to stay crispy and crunchy in milk, Golden Grahams were “part of a nutritious breakfast”. Kellogg’s, knowing that it couldn’t look America in the eye and tell them that a daily bowl of sugar was just fine, no problem… invented the term “part of a nutritious breakfast”, which sounded much better than “for most of your nutritional needs, you’ll need to eat something else”. It’s classic television marketing sleight of hand.
If not for the letter ‘e’, Jason Bateman would be Jason Batman. Incidentally his middle name is Kent, as in Clark Kent. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide. Anyway, I always thought he’d make a good Bruce Wayne. But to play the role of a night stalking vigilante, you also need to have that a** kicking edge, and I just wouldn’t be able to buy into it given that Bateman will forever be sweet little James Cooper on Little House on the Prairie. That’s just me though. Others might think his “bad Boy” Derek Taylor character on Silver Spoons would transfer nicely as an edgy adult Superhero. Interestingly, Bateman was so popular on that show, the producers feared he was upstaging the rest of the cast members and consequently removed him from Silver Spoons. BTW, if you recall the opening credits to the show, there is a long shot of the mansion the family lives in and it looks like a mediaeval castle. I never understood that!? The show took place in the 1980’s, not the 1890’s…
Isn’t it odd that here we are talking about Jason Bateman as Bruce Wayne, a wealthy playboy, when the show Silver Spoons focused on a wealthy playboy Edward Stratton III, and his relationship with his young son?? Stratton… I wonder if that’s where Jordon Belfort (aka The Wolf of Wall Street) derived the name of his brokerage house, Stratton Oakmont? Stratton conjures feelings of wealth, subliminally, for anyone who watched Silver Spoons. ‘Oakmont’ deriving from the word Oak, as in Oak Tree, illicitness thoughts of strength and longevity. It’s a good name for a company that plans to commit embezzlement and fraud. I think it’s worth noting, here, that another hit show staring Bateman, Arrested Development, focuses on a family that is forced to cut back on their lavish lifestyle after the patriarch is found guilty of embezzlement and fraud from the Bluth Company, the shows’ fictitious real estate development firm.
Speaking of white-collar crime – for anyone who has seen the show Ozark, starring Bateman, they know how perfectly cast he is for the role of Marty Byrde, a financial advisor caught in a money laundering web that is hard to believe how the writers of the show wove. To make Ozark as realistic and sensible as possible, the writers brought in an FBI agent who works on financial crimes and a hedge fund manager. Beam Solutions, a financial compliance software company, considered the series’ accuracy to be “both plausible and very creative”, according to Wikipedia.
Jason’s next project (at this point I feel like I’m on a first name basis with him) is ‘Here Comes the Flood’ where he will direct and possibly play one of the parts. The Netflix original is about an international thief who approaches a bank employee to help him strategize and enact a heist but is eventually double-crossed. Currently, no cast members are officially announced for the movie, but Robert Downey Jr. is reportedly in talks for the lead role. Since a heist is robbery, and robbery is when a person takes something by force, I cannot claim another white-collar crime reference. Damn…SO close!! But I’ll take one final superhero reference in Iron Man and quit while I’m ahead. This is where I leave you.
(‘This is Where I Leave You’ is a 2014 comedy-drama starring Jason Bateman, just saying).
