Prius - Heck on Wheels #GoPriusGo (2016) :90 (USA)

This is an extended cut of the :60 that will air during the Super Bowl during the first half. Toyota Prius takes Mr Bland - actually his name is Todd - and has him belt out a hard-rock song while driving to work. While I love Todd's head-bumping cat, and the well known insight that a driver is King in his car, the old "boring person sings rock" has been done a few times. So have some of the visual funnies, like Todd's neighbour who looks like her dog. Todd drives into water puddles and splashes some sort of monster-truck, which only reminds me of every Prius I've ever seen on the road - they seem to have in common that they're driven by assholes who drive poorly. Todd slows down for the po-po, because Todd is not chased by the po-po. Todd arrives at work where colleagues and electric guitars greet him. The sudden dancing around the car in the end is giving me flashbacks to the worst Toyota ad ever made where people danced around the car through the ages. That ad is so bad, the people involved in it should be run out of the advertising business. Somewhere at Toyota, someone must have still liked the idiotic idea of dancing around cars, and here we have it happening again. Just stop it, Toyota. Know when you've made a bad and walk away. Also, if you really wanted to convey that the Prius "feels bad-ass" you would have done better by buying a fresher idea.

Ad agency; Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles
Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: Terri Timely
Executive Producer: Jackie Kelman Bisbee

Music: Butter Music and Sound
Composer: Mike MacAllister
Music Executive Producer: Marcus Nelson
Music Producer: Annick Mayer