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WATCH: Hyundai writes message in sand to astronaut in space in latest marketing stunt

TORONTO – A little girl teamed up with Hyundai to send an incredible, record-setting, message to her astronaut father in space and the internet can’t get enough of it.

13-year-old Stephanie stars in a video that, at the time of this writing, has been watched more than five million times since it was published Thursday.

At the onset, she explains that her father is an astronaut currently living on board the International Space Station. The Houston native confesses that she really misses him and wants to send him a message.

Stephanie’s astronaut father is shown peering out a window of the International Space Station ready to take a picture. YouTube / HyundaiWorldwide

The Hyundai Motor Company assigned a massive crew of drivers, technicians and more from Korea, Europe and the United States to the middle of nowhere – Delamar Dry Lake in Nevada – to conceive and launch a plan to help Stephanie.

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Using 11 Genesis vehicles, professional drivers are shown carving tire tracks all over the desert in a pattern invisible to the viewer until the finale.

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As the last car exits stage-right, Stephanie’s father can be heard from the ISS.

“Hey Stephanie, it’s your Dad. I just wanted to call and say I love you and thank you.”

The astronaut then reveals the team’s creation captured on his camera to be an enormous message carved in the sand that says, “Steph loves you!”

Hyundai claims the area the message covered was over five square kilometers, or one and a half times the size of New York’s Central Park, and has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the largest tire track image”.

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The stunt symbolizes a growing trend of advertisers using the web to provide “extra value” content to build customer interest and loyalty.

READ MORE: Most remarkable commercials of 2014

“The campaign highlights our philosophy of caring for customers through emotional interaction and becoming a brand beyond simply a means of transportation,” Scott Noh, Head of Hyundai’s Overseas Marketing Group, said in a release.

“Although sending a message to space with our Genesis cars was not an easy challenge, it enabled us to demonstrate our caring vision to our customers.”

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