"Is This a Toyota Ad?"

13 August 2025

75s

Ad'll explain it.

Tim Bullock directs a Toyota commercial about Toyota commercials. That's right, dear viewer—the brand's about to get meta on your ass. Before anyone sounds the self-satisfied alarm, however, DAVID's pleased to say Bullock and company have delivered an absolute blinder for the New Zealand market. You might just be stuck in a traffic jam for a while.

It's not just any traffic jam, though. This is one where everyone drives a Toyota in some shape or form, All Blacks and Black Ferns carpool like it's an everyday occurrence, and phrases like "it is a Toyota-certified used CHR" roll off the tongue. Not everyone's convinced they're in a Toyota spot at first (where's the camera crew, the make-up department, the appearance fees?), but the evidence soon stacks up.

Everyone knows when the camera cuts to them, or when the script needs to highlight another aspect of the business ("They'd want to show a happy family in a fully electric car, wouldn't they?"). By the time Bullock returns to a couple of billboard workers who eased us into the idea, it should be case closed. One reckons it's just New Zealand in action, but how does he explain the incidental music that plays like it's time to go away and buy a car?

We'll leave the two of them to hash it out. In the meantime, DAVID hopes it inspires more car makers to poke fun at themselves and the staples of this sector. When in doubt, think of the boy who says: "Hydrogen car, miss? That's an unlikely coincidence."

New Zealand

Cars