Engineering an ad

How do you convince a doubting public your truck is tough? You show them. Every once in a while, a series of television commercials comes along that is more interesting and compelling than the programs it is sponsoring. Case in point: the recent spots touting the Tundra pickup truck from Toyota. Each commercial lets has truck demonstrating its prowess on a piece of oversized playground equipment. Many viewers think the ads are doctored, with perhaps a touch of computer-aided chicanery, but companies responsible for the commercials and the truck insist that what you see really happened. Here’s a peek behind the scenes. The creative team at Saatchi & Saatchi LA, a major advertising firm, had a simple task: convince American TV viewers that Toyota’s Tundra is a tough, rugged truck that can handle anything the average pickup driver might throw at it. So they talked to truck owners and drivers and asked them what characteristics are most important for a truck. The answers weren’t too surprising; power, braking, acceleration, stability, and towing were among the most popular, “We knew what we wanted to highlight, the attributes real truckers are interested in,” says Erich Funke, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi LA. “So we decided to do a series of commercials that would do just that.” Because Toyota was planning a series of three or more commercials, the advertising agency wanted them all to have a similar look and feel, so they developed a template, a list of common features. “The ads would have to be authentic, real demonstrations that proved a point about the truck,” says Funke. “They also had to be filmed in a location that was rugged and rough, a place where the living was hard. At first, we wanted to shoot the ads at locations all across America.