Move over Subaru, you're not the only manufacturer with adorable dog commercials. Man's new best-est friend is Robo Dog, the star of Kia's Super Bowl commercial. Spoiler alert: Robo Dog lives, just like They Lived in that other Subaru campaign.
We're a little bummed that Kia traded its infamous Kia Soul rapping hamsters (can you believe some of those commercials are over 10 years old?) for another critter. The new star, an electronic puppy named Robo Dog, represents the Kia EV6, a new, fully electric SUV ushering in a new era of BEV-specific models for Kia. And once we saw the commercial, we were sold and understood the hamsters wouldn't do the trick this time. Plus, hamsters associated with a new Kia EV might remind us of the discontinued Soul EV.
The commercial is set to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," the first indication of impending awesomeness. Robo Dog sits in the window of an electronics store, with a $299 price tag by his side. He sulks as he dejectedly gets a front row view of the real Subaru dog (we kid, different Retriever) give a giant hug to a happy guy.
Robo Dog immediately perks up as he catches the owner of a Kia EV6 uplug. He escapes out the front door of the electronics store in hot pursuit of the departing EV6. Robo Dog chases the EV6, dodging boxes and risking it all to keep up with the Kia, whose driver doesn't know about the pup.
After taking an elevator, Robo Dog finds himself on a rooftop. With one final lunge, he hurls himself off the building, hoping to land in the EV6's open sunroof. Midflight, he runs out of battery and everything goes black. Rather than splatting on the sidewalk and shattering into a thousand pieces, the Kia owner presumably finds Robo Dog intact. (Plot hole, but that's okay.) He revives the adorable robotic dog with Kia's vehicle-to-load (V2L) onboard charger. Energized, Robo Dog opens his eyes to the smiling Kia EV6 owner.
The commercial closes with Robo Dog hanging his head joyously out the passenger window and a message from Kia to "Live fully charged." Robo Dog gets plugged into his forever home, and everyone lives happily ever after. Electronics, emotionalized.
Kia's campaign is more than a commercial—it's about real-life human-animal bonding. Something called the "Robo Dogmented Reality," which is a mobile web experience in partnership with the Petfinder Foundation, virtualizes pet adoption so people can search for adoptable animals in their area. The message is further spread through Kia's first TikTok integration, a "Turn Around Dance" campaign where users can dance with Robo Dog.
The hamsters were cool, but the robot dog is adorable.
