CARY, N.C. -

I’ve been reporting on the auto industry for 14 years, but even armed with an insider’s knowledge, I still find the car-buying process to be stressful.

But the auto industry, in general, recognizes that many consumers feel this way. And dealers, automakers and other entities within retail automotive have made great strides to put folks at ease when they go make that purchase.

One example of this is the “Finally, It’s Easy” campaign from Autotrader, which features comedic actor Kenan Thompson talking to the smart devices and appliances in his house about the ease of buying a car through the company’s platform.

The campaign was announced Monday and was developed in partnership with 72andSunny New York. There are currently 30- and 15-second TV spots, with another installment to come. Autotrader is also launching supporting creative for digital and social media channels. 

“We understand there can be a lot of different anxieties that go along with car-buying — from deciding which type of vehicle you want to buy, finding the right one, test driving, negotiating the price and more — but we want people to know that with Autotrader, it really doesn’t have to be that hard,” said Greta Crowley, vice president of marketing for Autotrader, in a news release.

“The ease of car buying from home with Autotrader means you can let those worries go — and Kenan’s comedic brilliance brings to life all of the tools and information Autotrader has to make shopping, test driving and buying a car from home stress-free and easy.”

I don’t know if reaching Generation Y shoppers of a certain age was also a goal here, but casting Kenan is the home-run way to accomplish that.

The fact that he’s funny is just icing on the cake. The real reason that these spots work is that there’s a certain comfort, a certain familiarity with Kenan.

Especially for so-called “geriatric millennials,” like yours truly, who are barreling towards 40.

Many of us have been watching Kenan since middle or elementary school, starting with “All That” and “Kenan and Kel,” and more recently as the longest-tenured cast member ever on “Saturday Night Live.”

The guy who, as a kid, made us laugh when we were kids has now been a pillar of SNL for essentially our entire adulthoods.

When we see Kenan on TV, we’re usually laughing, but also, we’re at ease.

So, who better than him to embody the notion of taking stress out of car-buying?

And who better for retail automotive to pitch than us elder millennials?

Depending on the birth-year parameters you put on the generation, the oldest of the millennials are in their late 30s or early 40s — often the sweet spot of young families, mid-career professionals and financial flexibility.

“As the tail end of GenX has now surpassed 40 years old, millennials are the largest generation in the prime of their purchasing stage and is squarely into their large auto and real estate purchasing cycle,” Matt Copley, director of product marketing for PureCars, wrote in this guest column.

“And from a spending power perspective, millennials spent $1.4 trillion last year in the middle of a pandemic with restricted global economies.”

The latter shows this generation buys even when times are uneasy. But we’d prefer the actual buying process to be easy.

And ease-of-use is precisely the message Autotrader is conveying through Kenan in these spots.

Copley goes on to say in the column that “millennials know that service is important, but like everything else discussed here they want it to feel like the right experience — friendly faces, online- or app-based scheduling, even pick-up and drop off where available.

“Millennials are interested in buying cars and trucks. However, dealers must eliminate the muscle memory of how they advertise to them, and how they sell to them,” he said. “When dealers embrace an open and flexible purchase process, they open the opportunity to deliver a very Apple-like shopping experience to every customer online and in store.

“This is the type of strategic shift that can win raving fans across every generation and ensure continued success and customer retention years to come.”

And when it comes to winning raving fans and continued success, no one does it better than Kenan.