The unique advertisement for Kia America instantly captured the hearts of people online who could related to the dad's plight on a personal level.
Who wouldn't want to focus on a Super Bowl game peacefully? If you have a crying baby around then that's probably going to ruin all the fun. The baby's parents would go to any lengths to make their child stop crying even if that means giving them what they want... whatever they want.
Kia America tapped into this universal parenting truth for its 2023 Super Bowl car commercial by depicting the lengths some parents will go to comfort their baby—and thereby, keep their sanity. In the commercial, a family of three arrives at a hotel to begin their vacation when the woman realizes that they forgot to pack an essential item: their infant's favorite pacifier.
#SuperBowl ad shows a dad’s hilariously extreme efforts to retrieve his baby’s pacifier 👶 https://t.co/GcRQtcXiLu pic.twitter.com/LEClpXsxLD
— Atlanta & Company (@atlandco) February 9, 2023
"You remembered her favorite Binky, right?" she asks her partner as they check into a mountain lodge. Seemingly on cue, their baby begins to fuss and the dad's face goes through a whole range of emotions from realization to horror to determination.
He dashes out the front door of the lodge, grabs his car keys from the valet, and drives away, determined to get back home and retrieve the pacifier before his child screams up an avalanche. A hotel guest at the entrance captures his sprint in a live video and shares it on social media, saying: "Tragic. Hashtag Binky Dad."
The dad drives off in a race against time to retrieve the pacifier from home even as his journey—dubbed "Binky Gate" by social media—catches the attention of netizens who write, "Go Binky Dad, go!" "Who forgets the Binky?" and "I'm Team Binky Dad."
When at one point, his path is blocked by a construction site, a worker instantly recognizes him and shouts, "Hey! It's Binky Dad!" and points him in the right direction. The father then careens down snowbanks, gets stuck in traffic, and is escorted by a helicopter and a police squad even as his expedition makes headlines on television.
The dedicated dad then drives right through a football game. "Time out for Binky Dad!" yells a referee, while the dad is captured on the jumbotron. When the frazzled father arrives home, he is greeted by reporters and adoring fans. He finds the pacifier, lifts it into the air in triumph to wild cheers from the crowd, and then gets back in his car. He dashes back to the hotel and inserts the green pacifier into his daughter's mouth, only to have her instantly spit it out onto the floor. "She only likes the blue one," explains his partner. Confronted by this hard truth, the father gets ready to make another trip home.
Social media users related deeply to the advertisement. "OMG! This is giving me flashbacks to when my oldest was little. He would only drink out of red sippy cups with green lids. We left it at a doctor's office an hour away one day and had to drive all the way back to get it," commented Youtube viewer April E.
"I wish #BinkyDad was my dad," added user Robert Casillas. This advertisement goes to great lengths to show how much parents care about their children and perhaps Super Bowl as well. How far would you go to get your child's favorite pacifier?
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