The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Toyota Hilux 'In a Pickle' pulls rival utes out of a mud puddle — ADFEST 2025 Film Gold
Facing flashy new ute rivals, Toyota stages a deep mud puddle only a HiLux can fix, selling reliability with banjos — Film Lotus Gold at ADFEST 2025.
Toyota · Saatchi & Saatchi Australia
What it had to solve
By 2024 the Australian ute market had turned into an arms race: new entrants were arriving and rivals advertised sleek design, flashy features and new formats. Toyota had to remind Australians why the HiLux, the country's most iconic ute, stayed legendary — its five-decade reputation for reliability.
How it works
By 2024 the Australian ute market had turned into an arms race: new entrants were arriving and rivals were advertising sleek design, flashy features and formats at every price point. Toyota had to remind Australians why the HiLux, the country's most iconic ute, stayed legendary — its five-decade reputation for reliability.
Saatchi & Saatchi answered with a modern western set around one deep, muddy puddle. Two HiLux-driving heroes tow out one stranded vehicle after another to the classic 'Dueling Banjos' theme, then casually rip out the tree trunk that got the first truck stuck. The film launched on Australian TV in October 2024 under the line 'you don't send a ute to do a HiLux job.'
The idea made reliability a thing you watch instead of a claim you hear. ADFEST's film jury, choosing among 174 entries, gave the campaign one of only two Film Lotus Golds at the 2025 festival.
Why it lands
- It reframes an old proof point as entertainment instead of arguing with competitors' features.
- The joke belongs to Australia — ute culture and the HiLux's icon status — so it could not be mistaken for anyone else's ad.
- One vivid problem (the puddle) lets a single film carry the whole reliability story with no price, spec or claim to defend.
- Humour made the boast feel like folk wisdom rather than marketing, which is exactly how Australians talk about the HiLux.
What it did
The idea made reliability a thing you watch instead of a claim you hear. ADFEST's film jury, choosing among 174 entries, gave the campaign one of only two Film Lotus Golds at the 2025 festival.
What you can take
When a category races toward novelty, re-selling the old proof can be the differentiator: stage the one problem only your product can solve and let the humor do the persuading.
Since then
Launched on Australian television in October 2024, the campaign ran through the 2025 model-year battle and picked up one of the two Film Lotus Gold awards at ADFEST 2025, announced on 21 March in Pattaya.
Sources
- ADFEST 2025 Film Lotus winners — Toyota Hilux 'In a Pickle' (Gold)
- AdFest Film Grande awarded to Leo Thailand for 'What the Fast!'; Saatchi & Saatchi Australia nabs Gold for Toyota Hilux 'In a Pickle'
- Publicis Groupe APAC illuminates ADFEST 2025, Leo wins the most Grande Lotuses & Heineken is the Brand of the Year
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