LIVE YOUR LIFE. LEAVE TIRES TO US.
A tire campaign for people who don’t care about tires.
The honest truth.
Most people don’t really think about their tires, unless there’s a problem. Instead of fighting that reality with the usual category clichés and technical messaging, we embraced it. This became the starting point for a new Hankook communication platform: Live your life. Leave tires to us.
The campaign marks a shift away from typical tire advertising. Rather than focusing purely on performance claims, we created a brand platform that speaks to what people actually care about: their lives. Hankook simply handles the tires in the background confidently, reliably, without drama.
Hank — the Retired Mechanic
To bring the platform to life, we created Hank, a retired mechanic with a deep love for tires, but a new passion for living.
He became the heart of a humour-led storytelling world: a character who explores hobbies like pottery, knitting, or meditation… only to keep circling back to what he knows best.
It's all about Storytelling.
Instead of the typical workshop hero shots and car-commercial aesthetics, we leaned into character, charm and comedy.
This allowed Hankook to own a distinctive tone. It's entertaining, self-aware, and refreshingly far away from classic tire advertising.
The campaign launched across Europe as an integrated platform spanning TV and digital content. The result: brand building through relatable storytelling turning a “low-interest product” into something people actually want to watch.
Credits.
Client: Hankook
Agency: Innocean Berlin
My Role: Senior Art Director