Hyundai's 'Smaht Pahk' places 2nd in ranking of Super Bowl ads

WASHINGTON -- Hyundai's new Sonata commercial featuring Chris Evans and other stars came in a close second in USA Today's ranking of Super Bowl ads, the outlet said Monday.

The 60-second commercial played during the first quarter of Sunday's Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. It garnered 6.98 points out of a total 10 on USA Today's Ad Meter, which ranks Super Bowl commercials by consumer rating. The winner was Jeep, which scored an average of 7.01 points.

In the Hyundai ad, movie stars Chris Evans, John Krasinski and Rachel Dratch, as well as former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, are blown away by the new Sonata's Remote Smart Parking Assist feature.

Speaking in an exaggerated Bostonian accent, the three actors watch and gape as Krasinski's Sonata parks itself in a narrow parking space and then pulls itself out -- all at the click of a car key.

"Game changer," exclaims Evans.

"This is a ghost car," adds Dratch.

Hyundai went through 344 original scripts before it chose the one it used, according to USA Today.

Kia, another South Korean automaker, ranked eighth with its ad focusing on the issue of youth homelessness in the United States.

It earned 6.19 points.

The commercial, titled "Tough Never Quits," shows Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs driving a Kia Seltos with a boy depicting his younger self in the passenger seat.

"I'd tell him: Josh, it's gonna be hard growing up homeless,"

Jacobs narrates. "But you gotta believe in yourself. Be tougher than the world around you," he adds, before pointing at a field and promising the boy that if he pushes himself to "be someone," someday he will.

Jacobs was at times homeless as a child, according to USA Today. The commercial was part of Kia's "Yards Against Homelessness" campaign that pledged $1,000 in donations to three charity partners for every yard gained in the Super Bowl, it said.

There were a total of 62 contenders in the Ad Meter contest. (Yonhap)