#Toyota

Gold Lion • 1999 Cannes International Advertising Festival (France)

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Client: Toyota
Brand: Toyota Hilux
CD: Andrew Tinning
CW: Howard Grieve
Director: Tony Williams
DOR: 1999

A series of farming mishaps each provoke the laconic comment, “bugger”. That was the formula behind one of New Zealand’s most iconic advertisements. It attracted 120 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (who ruled that “bugger” was unlikely to cause serious offence). The shock value of that word, the role of Hercules the dog, and the performance of the hapless farmer (in the tradition of Fred Dagg and Footrot), made for Kiwi pop culture magic.