Popular culture can allow an audience to have a better
understanding of a variety of cultures.
According to Martin & Nakayama in 2013, “popular culture is a new
name for low culture, referring to those cultural products that most people
share and know about, including television, music, videos, and popular
magazines” (p. 361). Popular culture
consists of well-known forms of media that most audiences are aware of. Martin & Nakayama (2013) believe that
there are four significant characteristics of popular culture: “it is produced
by culture industries, it differs from folk culture, it is everywhere, and it
fills a social function” (p. 361).
For this
blog I looked at three Kia Soul commercials starting with the latest and moving
to the most recent. These commercials featured hamster in them and we can see
how these commercials are using popular culture to get their brand out along
with a changing message while still using the hamster as the center piece of
the commercial.
The very
first commercial showed many hamsters on wheels stuck not moving on the road.
Then three other hamster roll up in a Kia Soul and the rest of the hamster
looked shocked/jealous. Clearly they are grouping people into two categories,
those who are smart driving a Kia Soul and those who are “stuck in the same
spot” driving older more boring cars. There is also a clear choice in song
here, one of the lyrics is “there’s some distance separating you and I”,
continuing to play into the idea that there are two group those with the Kia
Soul and those without.
The next
commercial in the series then moves the concept from, “we are better than what
you have now” to “this is the car of the future”. In this commercial robots
that are fighting each other stop to look at the Kia Soul and eventually dance
with the hamsters. It shows not only is the Kia Soul a car for the future but
it is well received in the future as well. Once again three key themes exists
here, the hamsters, those who have a Kia Soul are better off (apparently even
in a robot war), and finally the music choice. This time the music chosen was
Party Rock. I believe there to be a couple reasons behind this. First is that
at the time party rock was a very popular song and second it reinforces the
message that the Kia Soul is better. With the Kia Soul you are having fun even
in a robot war.
The final
commercial I looked at is the most recent Kia Soul commercial. This commercial
follows the Hamster and the cars designer as they both “transform”. For the
hamsters they transform their bodies and the car designer transforms the body
of the Kia Soul. The three themes are here again. The hamsters are featured in
the commercial, as they were in the previous two. Also the groups of people
cheering are not only cheering for the hamsters but the Kia soul, once again
indicating you can either be someone cheering for the Kia Soul or be the person
walking out of the Kia Soul. Finally the music choice is closely tied to the
commercial. Once again one of the reasons the song was chosen was due to its popularity
but it also has to do with the subject of the song. The chorus is “I live for
the applause” clearly suggesting that the Kia Soul exists because it makes
people happy.
