Hyundai helps send a message to SPACE

“Steph [Heart]’s You” was the message a daughter wanted to send to her father. Stephanie says that her dad has an unusual job - he needs to live and work in space; so he’s been gone for a long time and she misses him. She thinks that if she could write a message large enough, he will be able to see it from space and can capture the message on camera as her dad loves to take pictures.

Well, how would a 13-year-old girl from Houston do that? The Great Wall of China is famously known as one of the very few man-made structures that can be seen from space, so to write a message on the surface of the earth that is intelligible from space is a monumental task. This is where Hyundai comes in with a pretty clever marketing stunt.

The automaker took eleven of its Genesis sedans and choreographed what looked like a precise automotive ballet performance (after post-editing) in Delamar Dry Lake, two and a half hours north of Las Vegas. In synchronized routes, the sedans’ tyres etched the message onto the dry sand. The Nazca lines-like writing in the sand is so huge that Guinness has certified is as the world’s largest tyre track image.

What’s more important than that is that the message was received. Although there has been no official confirmation of who daddy astronaut is, it is believed to be Commander Terry Virts who is currently on board the ISS.

Here’s the message captured by Steph's dad:

Watch the video released by Hyundai:

Scott Noh, head of the overseas marketing group for Hyundai Motor Company, insists that the campaign is not meant to be a hard sell (but it certainly is not downplayed, that’s for sure). Noh said that the video is mostly about "demonstrating our caring vision to our customers."