(Agency: Publicis Conseil; Air date: 10/01/19; Length: 45 seconds)
The award for the most creepy TV advert of 2019 so far must
go to Publicis Conseil’s new
spot for the Renault Kadjar. The ad introduces us to Liv, the 'virtual
ambassador' for the French car maker’s compact sport utility vehicle. Liv is a virtual
person – a highly realistic-looking computer simulation of a human female, who
drives her Kadjar from an urban setting into areas of real natural beauty; she
cruises past lakes, climbs up through mountainous terrain, splashes through mud
and streams, and comes up close with a doe in the woods.
There’s nothing strange about a car ad showing us the
vehicle’s ability to confidently negotiate different types of rugged and
beautiful landscape like this. What does make this ad strange is, first, the
vehicle is being driven by a virtual person, which is impossible; and, second,
because the virtual person’s close resemblance to a human – while at the same
time being unhuman – elicits a creepy feeling known as the uncanny valley. Wikipedia explains that
the uncanny valley 'suggests humanoid objects which appear almost, but not
exactly, like real human beings elicit uncanny, or strangely familiar, feelings
of eeriness and revulsion in observers. Valley denotes a dip in the
human observer's affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases
with the replica's human likeness'. Although Liv resembles a human closely, she
is still clearly unhuman. There are obvious cues to this, namely her digital
shimmer at the start and end of the advert, and the orange electricity in the
close-up shot of her eye. However, these things do not create an uncanny
feeling. What does elicit the uncanny response in me are several elements of
her appearance which attempt to appear human but fail, due to the limits of our
current technology. Specifically, Liv’s skin is too flawless, and is lacking
the blemishes, freckles, lines, moles and pores that appear on real human skin;
as a result, her skin appears porcelain and doll-like. She has dead eyes which
lack the life and vitality present in human eyes. So much of our spirit is conveyed by our eyes but because Liv has no spirit it seems like she is looking through us rather than at us. And her expressions of emotion –
particularly surprise (at 0.12), excitement (at 0.30) and wonder (at 0.32, pictured above) are
creepy because I sense deep within me that there are no emotions behind the
facial expressions she makes. All of
this leaves me feeling cold towards Liv.
However, perhaps an imperfect simulation of a human actually
works in this ad’s favour. The use of a 'virtual ambassador' is to juxtapose a
computer simulation of life with the beauty of the real thing. The only living
creature featured in the ad is the aforementioned doe, the beauty of which
causes Liv to gaze at her with awe. Liv’s name is obviously significant; she is
a virtual person yet driving this car is helping her to make it, or 'live', in
the real world. She encourages us all to do the same: to stop trying to live in
the virtual world, spending hours playing computer games or immersed in social
media, and instead buy a Kadjar and explore the real world. Uncanny feelings
aside, this is a good message. Even better, you don’t need to buy an expensive
Kadjar to do this – the real world can be explored just as well in cheaper
cars, on bicycle or by foot.
