Actually A Nice SUV Ad, Until They Drive The Vehicle Into The Water. It's Irresponsible.

In a new Kia Telluride ad, the SUV is driven into a creek, and
water cascades over the hood and windshield. Had this been
real life, the Telluride would have stalled. This is a
dangerous way to sell a car, because already, too many
people drive into flood waters. Some of them die. 

One of the better ads during the Super Bowl Sunday night was for an SUV called the Kia Telluride.

However, I'm afraid I'm going to rain on the parade for the small town of West Point, Georgia. You'll see how it has to do with the weather in a moment.

Until near the end, the Kia Telluride ad is quite good. It's pretty cinematic. It has no bells and whistles, and tells a story.  It's a nice departure from the usual TV ad fare.

Narrarated by a young boy, we learn that nobody has heard of West Point, Georgia. People live their lives quietly there, with dignity, but nobody gets the limelight, like the NFL players in the Super Bowl do.

"We're just a small Georgia town of complete unknowns," the boy drawls, amid images of hard working people, a quaint little downtown, an old, tight-knit public school and rural scenes

 "We hope to be known for what we do," the boy continues. It turns out the new Kia Telluride is manufactured there. Then the glaring problem with the ad arises.

Somebody drives the new Kia Telluride into a creek. It goes in so deep that water washes over the hood of the SUV and up onto the windshield. It's supposed to tell us how tough the Telluride is, and the imagery is supposed to impress us.

No! No! No! No!   Every time there's a flood, some morons drive their cars into water, and get stuck or worse. It doesn't take much water to float a vehicle away. Six inches will do it. Now we have this ad telling people it's OK to plunge into water.

A particularly galling aspect of the Kia Telluride ad comes when the SUV plunges into the water. For three seconds, barely visible on the bottom of the screen in small print you see a message if you're looking closely: "Do Not Attempt. Water stunt performed with aftermarket snorkel. Professional driver on closed course."

You'd never seen this message because you're focusing on the Telluride in the water. I didn't see this message until somebody pointed it out to me.

Had somebody driven this or any other vehicle into water that cascaded over the hood, the engine would have stalled. Whoever was in the car or truck would just float down the river, eventually sink, and possibly drown. Unless rescued by somebody. Of course, the rescuers' lives would be put in danger, too.

I know I'm being a bit of a scold here, but advertising, and pretty much anything we see in the media influences us, whether we acknowledge that or not.

Enough people drive into flood waters as it is, with often tragic results. According to the National Weather Service 79 people died in floods during 2018 and the vast majority - 54 - died in vehicles caught in the flood waters.

The NWS and other agencies have for several years now promoted the phrase "Turn Around, Don't Drown," to encourage people to not drive into floodwater. I worry that the Kia Telluride ad might partly undo some of the good work the public safety messages have done.

I get it. Car ads like to show vehicles doing things people normally wouldn't do to show how rugged and cool these things are. Most people are not stupid enough to try this at home. But a few are. Many who aren't that stupid might just feel a little more comfortable driving into a flood after seeing that Kia Telluride ad.

For what it's worth, he's the ad: