Hyundai Pairs up with The Walking Dead for Tucson Product Placement

The Hyundai Tucson figures prominently about 30 minutes into the episode when one of the main characters decides he's going to break off from a group of survivors and head out on his own. His choice of transportation to head into a world of walking dead is the Tucson.

Hyundai Chief Marketing Officer Steve Shannon waxed enthusiastic about the hot product placement during a dinner to promote Hyundai's Pre-Mix lounge now open in Manhattan. The Pre-Mix Lounge, which promotes the new Hyundai Veloster, will appear in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas in addition to the Big Apple. Hope you know one of the media partners connected to Hyundai because it's the only way to get into a Pre-Mix Lounge, which features, among other things, tricked out Velosters preppred by Rides Magazine.

But TorqueNews for this particular occasion talked with Shannon about the Tucson and the movie. Here's how it fit into the story. About 30 minutes into the season 2 premiere, the survivors are trapped on a highway leading out of Atlanta (who needs zombies to be trapped on a highway leading out of Atlanta?) when the character Shane, played by Jon Bernthal, decides he is going to split off on his own because of a love triangle gone bad.

So what vehicle out of all the ones on the highway does he pick? A Hyundai Tucson. Now a bad choice if I do say so, which is why it was great product placement on Hyundai's part. As Shannon pointed out, the Tucson started right up and the radio worked.

That, of course, sparked a comment by a fan of the show sitting at the table. How does a radio work when zombies have taken over? No, Scott the Engineer from The Howard Stern Show wasn't behind the controls. The radio picked up a signal from the Emergency Broadcast System warning people to stay inside, blah, blah, blah, too little, too late, typical government inefficiency kind of thing.

Want to know what most concerned Shannon about the product placement? It wasn't having a horde of zombies marching past. It was the fact that the vehicle was going to have to appear onscreen dusty. After all, to be realistic, one can't have a car that has been abandoned on a hot Atlanta highway apparently for months be sparkling clean.

And, you read it here first that the Hyundai Tucson is going to figure prominently in not one, but two more upcoming episodes of of the movie.

There is one criticism that can be waged against Shannon. He was invited to be a zombie on the show and hasn't done it. Here's a suggestion. Hyundai should auction off a zombie spot on the show for its Hyundai Hope on Wheels http://www.hyundaihopeonwheels.org/ charity. That would be a great way to raise money for the charity that benefits children's hospitals across the country.

The only downside was the commercial that came on right after the Hyundai scene proclaiming, "This episode is brought to you by Hyundai."

Editor's Note: I wish our society didn't felt the need to make movies like this and inject fear in its members. Let's praise light, kindness, selfless love and heroism instead.