TOYOTA | START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE | 2019
Take Away the Car, and You See Mobility / TOYOTA "START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE"
The car disappeared from Toyota's global campaign. What's shown instead: wheelchairs, robotic prosthetic legs, support robots. A car maker made an ad that doesn't show a car.
The problem
To mark its 8-year partnership with the PyeongChang Olympics and Paralympics, Toyota declared its shift from a "car company" to a "mobility company." Saatchi & Saatchi and Dentsu teamed up to roll out the campaign across 27 countries in 28 languages. It was the first time in Toyota's history that it spoke to the world with a single voice.
The insight
Car brands usually talk about performance or the status of ownership. But what Toyota saw was the existence of people whose movement is limited. Mobility, they said, is a human right. The sight of Paralympians who keep pushing past their limits echoed Toyota's own spirit of "kaizen," continuous improvement.
The idea
They removed the car entirely from the launch film, putting wheelchairs, robotic prosthetic legs, and a human support robot front and center. In the Super Bowl's famously expensive ad slot, they told the story of a Paralympic gold medalist. In "Mobility For All," they depicted 100 real stories of movement, from people aged one to a hundred. It wasn't advertising that proved a product—it was advertising that spoke to human potential.
What happened
The campaign won Gold in the Cannes PR category and the Grand Clio in Sports. But the thing that mattered most was that NBC nearly doubled its broadcast hours of the Paralympics in the United States.
Afterthought
Take away the car, and you see something much bigger: mobility itself. It's a story that only works when the advertiser, the agency, and the broadcaster all commit for real. This campaign is proof that Toyota has earned the right to call itself a "mobility company." It makes you want to start your own impossible, too.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2019
