Kia's Super Bowl Ad Moves to the Head of the Class

Last year I sang the praises of the Budweiser Super Bowl Ad. I pointed out that it spoke to all the markets it serves: the couch potato who remembers himself as the cool guy in his days gone by, the girlfriends and wives who will be actually be doing much of the beer buying for the bowl game, and the social media market, which loves a tear jerker. The song was awesome. The message memorable.

Now it's 2015. Bud is recycling the same message with the same characters, and I can't give it more than a B–. It's still getting tons of play, but it's riding on the coattails of last year's message, rather than moving forward with something new. Seriously? That dog has grown up people. It's a year later, and as far as I'm concerned, this year's Bud ad is 4.5 million dollars (the cost to run it during the Super Bowl) short.

But don't fear, I have another favorite. It's the Kia ad. Yep. It features Pierce Brosnan, and while those twenty-somethings don't remember him so much, the forty to seventy market remember him very well and will love this ad. Oh, and lo and behold, that's the KIA market. The man on the couch gets to see things blown up and realize that it's still fun to watch. The woman gets to see the fab Pierce, who still looks marvelous and wears that vulnerable, I-have-a-joke look on his face that made us all fall in love with him.

It's about times gone by, but it's rewarding us with the fact that there are new times on which to build. Seventy-five million baby boomers are entering their later years. This ad speaks to each and every one of them, and while I'd never considered a KIA before, I have a new appreciation for the brand. Hit me one more time with one more message just for me, and I might even pull into the lot.