One of the biggest marketing battles in South Africa began this week with the launch of the long-awaited new Toyota Hilux bakkie. For years the legendary Hilux had it all its own way as it rose to become the best-selling vehicle in the country. Not so long ago, the new kid in town, Ford’s macho and accomplished Ranger bakkie, called out the old man.
Even though the venerable Hilux had its staunch defenders, the unthinkable happened for a few months last year: the Ranger outsold the Toyota. So everybody (okay, not everybody, but most males with an interest in vehicles, bakkies and/or the Great Outdoors) has been waiting for Toyota’s response to the Blue Oval, in the form of the supposedly completely new Hilux.
Hilux has, over the years, imprinted itself into the hearts and minds of South Africans and love for the vehicle is often handed down from father to son.
That’s the image which ad agency FCB Joburg (which has had the Toyota account since just after the wheel was invented) wanted to capture in the launch campaign.
The TV commercial taps into the humour for which Toyota’s advertising in this country is known – but it also captures perfectly that appealing combination of naivety, one-upmanship and downright silliness which is the hallmark of young boys (and some men, I hear you say?)
We see three boys sitting discussing the various merits of their dads’ Hiluxes. The boasts are no longer “My dad is stronger than yours” but “My Dad’s Hilux can tow… and my Dad’s Hilux is tougherer than your Dad’s...”
As each boy chimes in with his estimate of the power of the Toyota bakkie, the claims become more exaggerated: “a bus up the pass”, a “bigger bus” to “the biggest bus with 15 Cheetahs riding on top!”
At that last boast, we see a huge double-decker bus, complete with the Toyota Cheetah rugby team on board, being towed up the pass… accompanied by an absurd fly-past.
Then the boys all rush off to their dads – who are sitting in Hiluxes waiting to take them home.
The punchline: “A new era of tough” sums it up perfectly.
It’s a great home-grown ad and accurately positions the new bakkie in the very heart of the life of its target market.
Yet another great Toyota ad – so an Orchid to them and to FCB Joburg. And another one of Oscar Strauss of Hungry Films, who really made the concept come alive.
Their counterparts in New Zealand were not quite so attuned to public feelings.
Late last year, Toyota had to pull a new Hilux ad after a tsunami of outrage on social media, because the ad pictured a host of animals that appeared to be keen to be shot by hunters, just so they could ride in the Hilux.
Sometimes agencies in this country do dim stuff, but that Kiwi faux pas is something else.
Also something else is a highly irritating ad airing on Joburg radio stations at the moment for Pikitup, the city’s garbage collection agency.
The ad extols the virtues of Pikitup’s commitment to beautifying Joburg. It says something like “we don’t concentrate only on collecting rubbish”.
For those of us who have failed to have our refuse collected for three weeks out of the past eight, the “only” should be removed to reflect accurately the state of Pikitup’s “service”.
There have been strikes and a lot of labour unrest in the sector over the past two years and, I am afraid to say, more than some of that has to be down to inept or uncaring management.
I am not for a moment sympathising with the demonstrators (who also trashed parts of the central business district) – and when they asked me for a bonus, they got a debate instead – but some of these workers deserve better treatment. It is a dirty job, and the people who do it can be treated with dignity.
And if Pikitup, instead of wasting money on ads, brought in labour experts to assess where its weaknesses are, we’d all be better off.
So Pikitup, you get an Onion. I know it will still be lying around, smelling, next week.
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