The Toyota Hilux is a no frills, hard-as-nails truck, made for agricultural and industrial use. It’s certainly not a day-to-day, comfy car.
The first ads I can ever remember seeing for this vehicle, were press ads. Sod’s Law, I can’t find them anywhere, but one of them just said – in a scratchy font; ‘windows go up. Windows go down. There’s your bloody climate control.’
The perfect tone, idea, and font for the car; rugged, no-nonsense, ‘just get on with it’.
The reason I mention all of this is because this ad popped up on my timeline, on Facebook, yesterday:
It’s brilliant (it’s also nearly three years old… why haven’t I seen it before?).
It’s spot on in aiming for the audience who already buy into it.
New Zealanders are often perceived as fairly tough individuals, so this appeals.
It shows the Hilux in action, performing tough tasks (with plenty of ‘product shots’).
The simple, dry humour is spot on; ‘bugger’.
Each of the individual scenarios is funny.
There’s even a little dark humour in there, with the trapped (now deceased) cow.
And the negative is shown as a positive; ‘the powerful Hilux is now even more powerful… but you’ll get used to it’ (a great way to show a product benefit in a simple, humorous way)
I can’t fault it. Both as an idea and in execution, it’s fantastic: marvel at it.