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Kia Ad on the Camino

peregrina2000

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I may be missing something, but Kia just announced a new SUV named Mojave (named after a California dessert?) and its roll-out ad features the Camino. I think that a bed bug makes its appearance at 1 minute 3 seconds, o_O but I could be wrong about that.

The ad is embedded in the Voz de Galicia article.

 
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Fabulous 🤣 ! The bed bug is at 1:43 or 1:44 when I watch it. Could a tech savvy person do a screen shot??
 
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Fabulous 🤣 ! The bed bug is at 1:43 or 1:44 when I watch it. Could a tech savvy person do a screen shot??

F39FDB03-6642-4AF0-8571-B5D8E4B47705.jpeg

Kia now comes with bugs? Driving a Kia gives you blisters? I'm leaving next week for SJPdP, do I need to pack a suit and tie like that guy? I have so many questions.......
 
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A bit of a overview of Camino Frances. And the message is obvious. If you are a car, you MUST drive the last 799 km, in a continuous progress, to Santiago de Compostela, without carrying a Pilgrim, in order to qualify for a Compostela.

I have no idea how it will manage to obtain the required Sellos.
 
A bit of a overview of Camino Frances. And the message is obvious. If you are a car, you MUST drive the last 799 km, in a continuous progress, to Santiago de Compostela, without carrying a Pilgrim, in order to qualify for a Compostela.

I have no idea how it will manage to obtain the required Sellos.
I'd take my daughter Katherine along as co-pilot/navigator: one drives and the other dashes into bars for the sellos 🚗
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Oh, HECK no...... we need to demand that all bars, churches, restaurants, police stations, etc provide a drive up window to make it easier for cars-that-are-pilgrims to collect stamps.
Plus RFID tags on all the majones - we can't keep on living in the Medieval past!
 
And we all thought it to be wary of push bikes tearing up the dirt roads... I'd hate to meet that thing mowing down pilgrams on the Meseta!
 
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I think that it would help to be able to read Korean to put the commercial in context.
Someone on Facebook posted a translation of the text - here are their remarks

From my vantage point as a Korean who has walked numerous Camino and, having had a bit of marketing experience it is a good commercial, appealing to those who have walked, want to walk or just curious about why people walk the Camino. And, if you are looking for a car!

Message in the commercial:

(If you want to) enjoy the view you must climb;
(If you want to) see what’s above you must descend.

Fast isn’t always the best;
I am discerning to find ways to maintain my integrity.

On the road to Santiago, I found
(truer) myself.
 
If you watch the YouTube posting on Google Chrome it will translate the Korean BTL comments. Most are requests for the title of the music or comments on the visuals. One guy says "Isn't there a 6 seater 2 row cup holder? Is there no 2nd or 3rd row manual curtain? If true ... are you kidding me? Light car ?? "
No pleasing some people!
 
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I may be missing something, but Kia just announced a new SUV named Mojave (named after a California dessert?) and its roll-out ad features the Camino. I think that a bed bug makes its appearance at 1 minute 3 seconds, o_O but I could be wrong about that.

The ad is embedded in the Voz de Galicia article.

Does a California dessert come a la mode ? 🍨
 
I may be missing something, but Kia just announced a new SUV named Mojave (named after a California dessert?) and its roll-out ad features the Camino. I think that a bed bug makes its appearance at 1 minute 3 seconds, o_O but I could be wrong about that.

The ad is embedded in the Voz de Galicia article.

Does a California dessert come a la mode ? 🍨
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
So what is that picture that Alexander posted in #5 above?
I'm no bug expert (might be bedbug expert though ;) ) but it's just a bug somewhere in the meadow. The shot wasn't taken inside, it's late afternoon light, although a bit overcast sky hence no sharp shadows, a lot of grass all around, easy to find some bugs, roaches, grasshoppers etc.
 
I saw a bug, but it looked quite big for a bed bug, the blister was explicit, indeed!



1569016609567.png

All in all, a bit sad such a big car with so many seats for one person only, that is one thing I found sad.
 
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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
OK. I love marketing. It's a large part of what I do.
But........
I haven't watched commercial TV in years.
So.........
"What the Heck is this supposed to be about" :oops::oops::oops:
 
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So will we now have a whole new wave of pilgrims over the next year inspired by and searching for the beautiful locations they saw in this commercial
OMG, that thought never occurred to me but I wouldn't put it past us humans. :eek:;)
But my guess is that Kia is trying to cash in on Korean enthusiasm for the camino - and the nostalgia of many from there who have walked.
 
In the fall of 2016 and 2017, Honda ... or was it Hyundai ... had people stationed along the camino in the final 100 km, handing out water bottles or topping up your bottle. An interesting and cheap promotion.

This is a pretty cool commercial by Kia.
 
This is a pretty cool commercial by Kia.
So this Kia ad does not count as a cynic commercial exploitation of the Camino by greedy business people? Or as cultural appropriation, see the recent uproar about a Dior ad with Johnny Depp for their perfume called Sauvage that led to the withdrawal of the ad (I thought that ad was pretty cool, btw), plus this KIA model is an SUV :rolleyes: ... this thread surprised me, and there aren’t many threads that can surprise me anymore these days 😇.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Is there a bed bug or not? I'd say yes.

To make you mind up, pause at 1:44 then you can go frame by frame using . (dot) to go forward and , (comma) to go back. I counted 11 frames showing the bug.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
They won't sell any...steering wheel''s on the passenger side!
There's a story that, back in the 1970s, British Leyland sent a Jaguar F-Type (the only ugly car Jaguar ever produced) off to the Tokyo motor show. They were surprised at the lack of interest until a Japanese journalist told them a left hand drive car would never catch on in Japan where they drive right hand drive cars . . . just like we do in the UK.
The Sales Department had sent a US spec car to Japan - well they're both foreign countries aren't they?
 
The beetle looks like a May bug to me (Melolontha). There must be companies who provide bugs to the makers of commercial videos I guess. It has a nice name in Spanish: escarabajo Sanjuanero. I wonder whether there are any cultural elements connected to it, like songs or stories or sayings, like in some other countries. And I wonder even more what that scene tries to convey to a Korean audience ...
 
Is there a bed bug or not? I'd say yes.

To make you mind up, pause at 1:44 then you can go frame by frame using . (dot) to go forward and , (comma) to go back. I counted 11 frames showing the bug.
Never knew you could do that . . . another day, another thing learned!
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
The beetle looks like a May bug to me (Melolontha). There must be companies who provide bugs to the makers of commercial videos I guess. It has a nice name in Spanish: escarabajo Sanjuanero. I wonder whether there are any cultural elements connected to it, like songs or stories or sayings, like in some other countries. And I wonder even more what that scene tries to convey to a Korean audience ...
Not the prettiest of God's creatures

1569053173074.png
 
Not the prettiest of God's creatures
If you read German have a look at the Wikipedia entry. Several popular songs and kids stories, a well loved creature. The English Wikipedia entry is poor. People in France and Germany even used to eat May bug soup in earlier times. Yikes. I didn't know that. Apparently in Spain the bug's appearance announces that summer has come, according to a saying. The female of the species doesn't have such large feelers as shown in the photo above, btw.

There's an entry on May bug soup in the English Wikipedia. Apparently it tastes like crab soup and was one of the few insect foods known in Europe. Due to the extensive use of pesticides May bugs have nearly died out in European countries where they used to be very common. They were also collected on a massive scale and used as chicken food on farms. I still remember them from the time I was a kid and I get excited whenever I see one these days. Now I start to wonder whether I saw one along the Camino Frances once ...
 
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I'm sorry, men, (I noticed that there's barely a woman in this Kia ad although the pilgrim man is of course ubercool with his rugged features and bracelets so that raises some interest in us) but SUVs are a lot more boring than bugs, and I'm not even interested much in those. So:

In 1320 [May bugs aka as chockchafers] gave rise to one of the most ludicrous events in the history of the relationship between human beings and wildlife. Cockchafers were summoned to a court in Avignon and sentenced to withdraw within three days to a specially designated area on pain of being outlawed. When they didn’t obey they were collected and killed. The same court passed a similar sentence on mice.

You can read it all and more in the Bug has a long, colourful history in the Irish Examiner.
 
Oh, I would say it definitely does. All of us just got warm and fuzzy feelings seeing the camino in the ad, and that's exactly what they want us to feel. ;)
I don't know who invented these kinds of advertisements. They are ancient. I think it was Marlboro (cigarettes) who "changed advertising forever" when they switched their advertising tactics and became "the first ever lifestyle advertiser". The Kia ad's main target group are not those who have walked, want to walk or are just curious about why people walk the Camino. It conveys how cool it is to both having a cool car and doing cool things.
 
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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Is there a bed bug or not? I'd say yes.

To make you mind up, pause at 1:44 then you can go frame by frame using . (dot) to go forward and , (comma) to go back. I counted 11 frames showing the bug.

I didn't know that either, thanks!

But I also got confused about where it is. The blister is at 1:44 (my mistake), the bug is at 1:03 as @peregrina2000 said in the original post.
 
This thread has gone viral!
I am one who thinks the bug is not a bedbug. He's just too fat and even after having a big feast I doubt they become that plump. I've seen a few on the camino with my own eyes. Dis one may be a lady bug!😅
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
It is a bug but it isn't bed bug, this is what I wrote and that is all I know.
So that then leaves the question — why would any advertising company think that showing a small bug crawling on someone would be an inducement to buy the car that that person is driving? Especially if that advertiser knew anything about the Camino and the fact that bed bugs are a real problem.
 
So this Kia ad does not count as a cynic commercial exploitation of the Camino by greedy business people? Or as cultural appropriation, see the recent uproar about a Dior ad with Johnny Depp for their perfume called Sauvage that led to the withdrawal of the ad (I thought that ad was pretty cool, btw), plus this KIA model is an SUV :rolleyes: ... this thread surprised me, and there aren’t many threads that can surprise me anymore these days 😇.
Absolutely, without a doubt, it is commercialization and cultural exploitation ... but oh the warm fuzzies it invokes with the ever so brief glimpses and the music and the 'if I had that SUV, I'd be fit and adventurous and fearless and ever so cool' factor.

The use of an American indigenous tribal name for the Suv is another level of exploitation.
 
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So, they helicopter in a good looking guy, and briefly a gal, shoot a few scenes along the Camino Frances; then they intercut the "beast" terrorizing the (suspect) California/Nevada USA desert; then slather is all up with a generous dollop of assertive background noise and Spanish sounding guitar. All of this to "inspire" the Korean market, (perhaps others,) to buy their product, as if the Camino was only a promotional backdrop. Go figure. I have owned KIA's since 1995, and this piece is most off-putting and not their best marketing effort.
 
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I may be missing something, but Kia just announced a new SUV named Mojave (named after a California dessert?) and its roll-out ad features the Camino. I think that a bed bug makes its appearance at 1 minute 3 seconds, o_O but I could be wrong about that.

The ad is embedded in the Voz de Galicia article.

it's an ad campaign aimed at Korean and U.S. market as he reflects back on memories of his Camino. I'll never take a KIA over the Pyrenees ( I hope 🤔) even though crossing them in a vehicle is much faster than a pilgrim walking or arrive at Santiago in one. Brought back great memories
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
So that then leaves the question — why would any advertising company think that showing a small bug crawling on someone would be an inducement to buy the car that that person is driving?
The text in Korean must say "See, we got the last bug out."
 
So that then leaves the question — why would any advertising company think that showing a small bug crawling on someone would be an inducement to buy the car that that person is driving? Especially if that advertiser knew anything about the Camino and the fact that bed bugs are a real problem.
Can't really answer your question but I wouldn't put too much attention to this bug. Maybe it has some evocative message for the Koreans, who knows. For us Caminoists a blister is a blister and bug is a bedbug. Every blister is indeed a blister but not every bug is a bedbug ;)

I see this bug on a finger just as part of the nature the Camino goes through. Maybe it wasn't even planned. Maybe they were preparing shot of a guy just resting in the grass when a bug landed on his finger. Similar things happened to me many times when I was doing outdoor documentaries. And very often I did include such shots in the films too.
 
I see this bug on a finger just as part of the nature the Camino goes through
I see it the same way. I'm neither Korean nor American so I may see something else than what the producer and the ad agency intended to project but lying in the grass, relaxing, taking the time to idly watch a friendly bug on my hand, doesn't that convey the same as getting out of my car and walking into the endless sunflower field - another short scene in the ad? Being at one with beautiful nature and myself, relaxing and then I vroom off again in my cool car ...

People are thinking way too much "Camino". The landscape and the shell and the backpack serve merely as a vague background, evoking images that the viewer may have seen before, and the target audience isn't going to associate bedbugs with these scenes. Most will only have a vague idea about the Camino de Santiago, will not know that there are bedbugs there and will not be enticed to book a flight to Madrid either.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
So that then leaves the question — why would any advertising company think that showing a small bug crawling on someone would be an inducement to buy the car that that person is driving? Especially if that advertiser knew anything about the Camino and the fact that bed bugs are a real problem.
Exactly! I agree that the bug was not a bedbug and that the intent was to show appreciation for small things and nature. However, it is very funny that the immediate reaction from experienced pilgrims was that it was a bedbug - not exactly what the advertisers intended! However, I doubt that we are the intended market.

P.S. I seem to be finding many funny things on the forum these days! Maybe I am in a good mood because I leave for Spain in 2 weeks.
 
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Please tell me that all the bedbug comments are facetious and nobody reading this thread who watched the video truly believed that was a bedbug or was supposed to represent one.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Please tell me that all the bedbug comments are facetious and nobody reading this thread who watched the video truly believed that was a bedbug or was supposed to represent one.
If you didn't slow the video down to look at the frame, all you saw was a bug and my reaction definitely was that it was possibly a bed bug. Once I saw the still frame, it was clear that it was not. Most of the comments are about our emotional reactions. If you've experienced bedbugs, you react one way. If you haven't, you don't.
 
If you didn't slow the video down to look at the frame, all you saw was a bug and my reaction definitely was that it was possibly a bed bug. Once I saw the still frame, it was clear that it was not. Most of the comments are about our emotional reactions. If you've experienced bedbugs, you react one way. If you haven't, you don't.
Emotional reactions about bedbugs? You are kidding, right? Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
I remember as a young troop going to a jungle warfare course in SE Asia. I have never been feasted upon by mother nature so much in my life, before or since. There were mosquitoes, ants, biting flies, scorpions these big nasty centipedes everyone said were poisonous 🐜🦟🦂🦠🐝 and several of us got leeches crossing a small river. One of the guys even got stung by this enormous wasp looking thing and his face swelled up like a giant grape. It certainly was an experience but when I watch African Queen on the television I can't say I get PTSD when Humphrey Bogart becomes a leech buffet, lol. They'e just insects. I would have never even remotely considered that to be a bedbug in that Kia advert. My first impression is that it was a ladybug. 🐞 That would have to have been a bedbug on steroids. lol
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
If you didn't slow the video down to look at the frame, all you saw was a bug and my reaction definitely was that it was possibly a bed bug. Once I saw the still frame, it was clear that it was not. Most of the comments are about our emotional reactions. If you've experienced bedbugs, you react one way. If you haven't, you don't.
This is interesting. The scenes that are not directly related to the wonderful car are so short that one can barely see what’s going on, it’s more getting impressions than seeing much. After the first view when I didn’t even know yet what to look for I recalled that I had seen a largish beetle similar to the ones we had handled and loved as kids.

I initially thought that @peregrina2000 was joking about a bedbug being in the video clip and I could not understand for the life of me why several people thought that the beetle was a ladybug. I understand now: for many, ladybugs are the beetles they most commonly associate with crawling on someone‘s hand and being pretty and harmless.

BTW, I didn’t notice the blister scene at all.
 
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This is quite interesting. The scenes that are not directly related to the wonderful car are so short that one can barely see what’s going on, it’s more getting impressions than seeing much. After the first view when I didn’t even know yet what to look for I „knew“ that I had seen a largish beetle similar to the ones we had handled and loved as kids. I thought @peregrina2000 was joking about a bedbug being in the clip and I could not understand for the life of me why several people thought that the beetle was a ladybug. I understand now.

BTW, I didn’t notice the blister scene at all.
I can tell you from experience that our brain can handle even shorter shots than those in the ad. I'm trained though and I can spot a black (empty) frame which is usually 1/24 (film stock) or 1/25 (video) of a second for example ;)
 
We have all seen grandiose vehicle commercials on televion. This one particularly stirs us up because of its camino influence used as the backdrop which makes it personal to us. I have seen commercials with SUV's sitting on top of red soil pinnacles in America's southwest national parks...obviously brought in by helicopter. I'm making no point really, except to say that the Kia commercial is just "more of the same", imo.
 
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So that then leaves the question — why would any advertising company think that showing a small bug crawling on someone would be an inducement to buy the car that that person is driving? Especially if that advertiser knew anything about the Camino and the fact that bed bugs are a real problem.
Because bedbugs aren't really that much of a problem on the Camino and really the only time I see them mentioned is on this forum and not in conversations with fellow pilgrims when I am actually walking the Camino.
Besides, that scene in the Kia video the actor is outside in nature when he has the beetle crawling on him. He is not sitting inside an albergue, on a bed/bunk. He is sitting outside because I imagine they are trying to show the vehicle's rugged outdoor qualities, or something like that. He is enjoying nature. The beetle is nature, just like the flowers etc. Just like having a lizard climb on your boot when you take a break, or having a bird land within touching distance looking for some crust from your bocadillo.
 
BTW, I didn’t notice the blister scene at all.
That’s how I confused the bug and the blister scenes. When I watched it again to find the bedbug I remembered his face grimacing at one point. I didn’t know how to stop the video at the point where he was looking at his (tiny) blister, and thought that must be the bedbug.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
When I was a young lad I had a pet tortoise I kept in a large terrarium sort of thing. During the summer I would catch as many junebugs as I could under the porch light at night, and keep them in a jar to feed him. He would eat as many as 20-30 in a go. One after another in a single gulp, lol. I had him for a couple of years until my dad told me to set him free in the woods.
20090615070900_junebug-beetle.jpg
 
I think virtual stamps are the way to go. Kind of like the new Amazon self check out stores or transponders.
 
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Well, if gummy worms aren't to be counted how about these? Not as popular as they once were but a beatle made for the people. More popular than the Mojave I bet.
View attachment 65015
My boyfriend had an old 1967 VW Bug! In the winter we both had to hand scrape the flat windshield continously while driving to keep it from icing up. The back seat was kinda nice as I recall...small as it was.😏
 
I had a red one and a yellow in the eighties.

I want another one.
Well, if you lived in NYC back then, did you have to scrape the windshield in winter from the inside by hand...or had they improved the dashboard heating elements by the time you owned one?
Gotta say, they were so much fun to drive and I can actually hear the distinctive sound of the engine running right now in my mind! 😂
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Well, if you lived in NYC back then, did you have to scrape the windshield in winter from the inside by hand...or had they improved the dashboard heating elements by the time you owned one?
Gotta say, they were so much fun to drive and I can actually hear the distinctive sound of the engine running right now in my mind! 😂

Nah, grew up in Los Angeles.

NYC had other adventures.

None of which involved car ownership.

We’re hijacking this thread.

We better Not continue.
 

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