As cute as the car?
Even when I’m clueless about the specific product being advertised, I always stop to take pictures of giant rooftop inflatables. Case in point: the hamster (or Hamstar as Kia spells it) shown in the photo. With a quick online search though, I learned more about a car, and the campaign to sell it, that’s tied to a hip rodent.
The hamster in the photo is looking down from the top of the Kia showroom in Bremerton’s West Hills Auto Plex. The Kia franchise recently moved there from its former location on Auto Center Boulevard after it was acquired by the Haselwood Auto Group. The franchise was formerly owned by Martin Hoover.
A “Grand Opening” banner on the side of the Kia building marks Kia as the latest in a long list of car makers to move from the aging Auto Center into one of the shiny new dealerships in West Hills. But it’s the hamster that really grabbed my attention even if I didn’t understand how it is connected to selling cars.
Either I haven’t been paying attention or I’m not part of the target market for the Kia Soul, a compact hatchback that debuted in 2010. Otherwise I might have known that Kia has been advertising the Soul with a series of commercials that star rapping hamsters and promote the car as being fun, hip, and practical. Many of the commercials are available on YouTube. That’s where I saw them, I think, for the first time.
On the practical side the car gets great gas mileage and has a base model that starts at less than $14 grand. The car’s styling appeal is harder to judge. Edmunds called it “quirky looking” but also said that it “gets even more interesting this year” (2012). To me it looks small, squat, and boxy, but it has a certain appeal.
In 2011 Kia released the Hamstar Soul, an upscale offering in the normally economy-priced Soul lineup. Whether it was worth the extra money is debatable, but the limited-edition car came with a kickass stereo, special paint and graphics, and a power sunroof. An auto writer for the Edmunds Inside Line called it a “rolling billboard for the brand’s signature hamsters.” Kia, more reserved, said the Hamstar was designed to “stand out in a sea of sameness.”
There’s no word on how long the Hamstar mascot will hang out atop the Kia building. More Soul in Bremerton is always welcome though.
Mud Bay Blog 
You guys seem to have more than your fair share of inflatable advertising. I wonder if that says something about the target market.
Wherever do they get those model names? Satchi & I saw one here in Japan called “Naked”! We had a good laugh about the fact that a young girl was driving it. Guess that one has a better chance of caching on in the States than the infamous “No Va” did with Spanish speaking customers!