Kia and Hamsters: Signs and Dollar Signs

You are never just watching television. You are constantly being “fed” from the “boob tube” of society’s culture and agenda, and nowhere is that more apparent than a snappy little commercial like Kia’s hamster rap feature.

If I were to take a table with a red and white-checkered tablecloth, a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs on it, a candle stuck inside a waxy Chianti bottle, some crusty bread and a glass of red wine, those elements together would communicate “Italian-ness” to the viewer.  Each one of those items, taken individually, wouldn’t amount to much, but collectively, they communicate without words and that is why they are known as “signs” (it’s like body language for objects).  And “signs of rap culture” have expertly been employed in Kia’s latest commercial.

What’s important about this commercial is not that it’s using hamsters dressed like rappers to sell their vehicles, rather, that you will recognize that this is a mimicking of rap culture:  you can't imitate something that doesn't exist, and this parody validates that rap music has its own culture, its own fashion, its own gestures, language, expressions, and, yes, art; again, you can't make fun of it if it doesn't exist because your audience has to be informed of what goes into making rap culture in order for them to understand that rap culture is what is being implied.
The creativity they have used to recreate this in a new manner, is supposed to communicate to the potential customer that, “Hey, if we are this smart in understanding what goes into making rap culture, we must be just as smart in understanding what goes into making a car cool and comfortable.”

You don’t have to like rap—or hamsters—to buy a Kia, you just have to recognize the “signs” of rap culture and that Kia has successfully reproduced those signs in this commercial and it’s exactly because of this gap in the logic that it is so effective. 

In printed ads, television, billboards, films and music—nearly every facet of our culture—we have companies using signs to communicate to us that we need what they have (especially beer commercials using bikini girls) and the wiser we are to the ploy, the safer our wallets will be.