There are certain voices that carry weight simply by arriving — the kind that make you pause over the remote, even when you were reaching for the mute button. Hyundai is betting that Scarlett Johansson's is one of them.
The automaker is introducing Ms. Johansson as its new spokesperson, with her debut coming during tonight's N.F.L. season opener. The spot, titled "The Mark of a Warrior," is not for sedans or crossovers but for Hope on Wheels, the company's long-running charitable program focused on pediatric cancer research. The advertisement depicts a child's battle against the disease, with Ms. Johansson providing the voiceover.
The choice of a cause-related campaign for the actress's first appearance is deliberate, according to people familiar with the arrangement. Rather than opening with sheet metal and lease rates, Hyundai is positioning Ms. Johansson as a voice for the brand's broader values — a strategy that suggests she will be heard from again, presumably when there are actual vehicles to discuss.
Ms. Johansson, of course, has lent her voice to commercial enterprises before, most notably as the disembodied operating system in Spike Jonze's 2013 film "Her," a role that required her to sell the audience on an emotional connection to something they could not see. (Selling an S.U.V. should be comparatively straightforward.)
Hope on Wheels, which Hyundai established in 1998, has granted more than $250 million to pediatric cancer research, making it one of the more substantial corporate philanthropic efforts in the automotive category — a field not always known for its subtlety in such matters.
The N.F.L. opener offers the kind of mass audience that broadcast television can still reliably deliver, at least once a week in the fall. Whether Ms. Johansson's voice can make viewers feel something about a car company's charitable commitments is the question Hyundai is now putting to the test.
Original story published in adage.com: "Hyundai CMO on Scarlett Johansson’s new brand voice role - Ad Age"