Toyota's Cars Are So Safe Today, Its Crash Test Dummies Are Looking for Other Work

It's the plight of the crash test dummy. As automatic safety features on cars improve, life-sized plastic dolls are becoming obsolete, and they're not happy about it. So goes the silly but illustrative concept behind a new campaign from Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. A third ad launching today joins two from April in examining the changing lives of inanimate objects. The latest spot, shot in the pseudo-documentary interview style of reality television, focuses on Stan, a dummy who's trying to find a new purpose, now that Toyota's suite of preventative tech has rendered his old job irrelevant. He tries to find thrills in all kinds of ways—skydiving, as a CPR dummy, strapping himself to a football blocking sled. Nothing quite compares, though, to barreling into a concrete wall at 35 miles an hour. [kickout id="1"] The 90-second ad goes a little deeper into the metaphor than the earlier, shorter commercials, which demonstrated the safety selling points through set pieces focused more on actual humans (a pair of scientists testing the features; a couple riding in a car). Those also teased the crash test dummy concept (a break room full of the dolls, dressed like set extras, gets awkward when they overhear a lab coat suggesting they might not be needed). Toyota's safety suite—branded "Toyota Safety Sense"—includes computerized tools like collision detection with automatic braking and lane drift detection with corrective steering, which come standard on a number of new 2017 models like the Prius and Corolla. For someone relegated to the junk pile by those features, Stan is surprisingly willing to sell them. Then again, the whole point is that he's upbeat about his own demise. And to be fair, he has landed on his feet, in another job benefiting disproportionately from the absence of soft organs—though thankfully, he won't have to be upright for long. CREDITS Toyota Safety Sense & Prius Campaigns Advertiser: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles Chief Creative Officer: Jason Schragger Executive Creative Director: Fabio Costa Executive Creative Director (Digital): Chris Pierantozzi Executive Director, Integrated Production: Lalita Koehler Director of Content Production: Sara Seibert Executive Producer: Richard Bendetti Director of Project Management: Angela Montoya Senior Project Manager: Jessica Mesa Project Manager Brett LaPlante Executive Director: Al Reid Group Account Director: Courtney Husk Account Director: Dianne Gee Account Supervisor: Rachel Greenlee Account Executive: Kaitlyn Roberts Assistant Account Executive: Priscilla Mon Chief Strategy Officer: Mark Turner Managing Director, Strategy and Insights: Don Longfellow Group Director, Connection & Insight Strategy: Paulo Carvajal Group Director, Connection & Insight Strategy: Evan Ferrari Director, Connection & Insight Strategy: Amaya D'Amico Sr. Connection & Insight Strategist: Bryon Foote Sr. Connection & Insight Strategist: Taylor McKee Executive Communications Director: John Lisko Communications Director: Breanne Carpenter Director of Integrated Business Affairs: Keli Christy Senior Integrated Business Affairs Manager: Kathi Bolliger Product Information Director: Matt Hardesty Broadcast & Digital Video Creative Director: Renato Braga ACD/Art Director: Robyn Stern Senior Copywriter: Craig Lederman Senior Integrated Producer: Holly Otto Music Supervisor Kristen Hosack Broadcast Traffic Director Nadzyah Guillermo Production Company: Furlined Director: Speck/Gordon Editing Company: No6 (Graham Turner & Isaac Chen) Finishing Company: The Mill (Bill Higgins) Mix Company: Lime Studios Print/OOH Creative Director: Renato Braga ACD/Art Director: Leo Borges ACD/Copywriter: Dan Sorgen Executive Art Producer: Cindy Rowe Senior Print Producer: Rachel Dallas-Noble Production Company: Carioca Social ACD/Art Director: Jeremy Carson ACD/Copywriter: Brian Frost Digital Executive Producer: Tarrah Barbour Integrated Producer: Ashley Harsen Account Director: Hansoul Kim Account Supervisor: Kara Hardy Account Executive: Kiara Collazo Production Company: Tool of NA (Brig White) Editing Company: Compadres (Nate Cali) Finishing Company: Arsenal / Compadres Mix Company: Margarita Mix (Paul Hurtubise) Digital Banners ACD/Art Director: Jeremy Carson ACD/Copywriter: Brian Frost Director of Digital Production Keith Bollinger Executive Producer: Nick Ngai Associate Digital Producer: Kat Olschnegger 3D Artists Dusty Leon & Alen Isagholi 3D Modeling John Kim 3D Producers Christian Wright & Carl Deo 3D Supervisor Javier Bellow Production Companies: FancyPants & 14Four

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Toyota's Cars Are So Safe Today, Its Crash Test Dummies Are Looking for Other Work

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