Ad Standards has rejected a series of complaints against Kia's zombie commercial but found one breach of the code relating to road rules.
The multi-part television advertisement shows the sunny streets of the Australian suburbia overrun with more than a hundred zombies.
One version of the ad features a woman leaving the shop with a grocery bag. There are zombies around her car.
She pulls the key from her pocket and presses a button on the remote. The driverless car starts to turn and reverses into a clear space. The woman then walks and gets into the car.
Ad Standards received a number of complaints.
“The Zombie ad is completely inappropriate. It would be frightening for young children and is in extremely poor taste,” one complaint said.
“Zombie movies typically have an adults-only classification and are not suitable for children, however this ad is prime-time during the tennis,” another said.
“It is also inappropriate to broadcast apocalypse-type adverts to an audience that has survived extreme natural disasters, and with the current deadly fires in LA, this is particularly distasteful.”
“The actions shown could encourage drivers to operate a vehicle whilst unable to ensure bystanders aren't at risk of injury or death,” another said.
In response, Kia said it had breached no codes and used humour to target people over 28 via the well-known tropes of the zombie genre.
“Kia’s marketing campaigns are typically light-hearted and fantastical, mixed with relatable Australian humour aimed at reaching Kia’s target audience while also being memorable,” the advertiser said.
“The advertisement is in line with this strategy, and the use of zombies is intended to comically answer the question of why Kia EVs would be best suited during a fanciful zombie apocalypse in Australia’s suburbs.
“In this campaign, the audience observes a number of Kia EV owners as they go about their daily lives, unnoticed, sharing their world with a number of comical and unthreatening zombie characters.
“Throughout the campaign it is revealed that the reason the Kia EV owners go unnoticed by the zombies is primarily due to the quietness of their Kia EVs, but also due to the specific features found in the Kia EVs that make them ‘Zombie Proof’.”
The Ad Standards panel "considered that the most likely interpretation of the advertisement is of a fantastical zombie-apocalypse situation similar to well-known movie tropes".
"The panel acknowledged that while scenes of devastation may be triggering to some people, they considered that the scenes in the advertisement were clearly fantastical and did not depict any real-world event."
The panel considered that the advertisement does not depict or suggest violence.
However, the ad did breach clause 2(c) of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Voluntary Code, due promoting a feature in a vehicle that would be against current road rules in most circumstances.
"Automated vehicle technologies, where a vehicle performs driving tasks without a human driver, are not currently permitted for general use in Australia. Therefore, using the smart parking assist feature without a driver in control of the vehicle would likely breach Australian road rules," the panel stated.
Kia Australia, which intends to appeal the panel’s decision, will modify the ad.
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