Toyota introduced viewers to the 2022 Toyota Tundra in a 60-second commercial at the end of the first half of Super Bowl LVI that featured three celebrities starring in a spot named Keeping Up With The Joneses.
The spot also ideally showcased how the carmaker kept up with the competition Joneses in the annual largest daily television audience.
And there was a twist. Not only were actor Tommy Lee Jones, actress Rashida Jones and comedian Leslie Jones featured trying to outdrive each other in different versions of the Tundra, there was a surprise.
Tommy Lee Jones, an Oscar winner, says “Game on.” A second teaser unmasks the second driver as none other than Leslie Jones, who declares, “I’m about to make a grown man cry.” Rashida Jones then appears in her truck, cuts through some mud and declares “Oops!” as she bolts ahead of the other Joneses.
While the three veer off the Jones Pass in Colorado to the tune of Tom Jones’ cheerful pop classic “It’s Not Unusual,” guess who shows up?
It’s not another Jones, it’s Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers singing group.
“It’s keeping up with the Jonases now,” Jonas tells the Joneses, who have arrived at the edge of a cliff much to their glee at about the same time.
Toyota had teased the three Jones in the commercial in the week lead-up to the Super Bowl, but Jonas’ participation wasn’t publicly released until the spot aired.
“The all-new 2022 Toyota Tundra has been years in the making and you only get one chance to make a first impression,” said Lisa Materazzo, group vice president, Toyota Marketing, Toyota Motor North America in a statement. “It’s only fitting that we launch the all-new Tundra, our biggest U.S. campaign launch ever, alongside this caliber of star power on the world’s largest advertising stage.”
Toyota agency of record Saatchi & Saatchi created the ad. Two-time Academy Award-nominated director Bryan Buckley was the director.
According to AdWeek, the Keeping Up With The Joneses ad was made in four days, with the actors involved for two days.
“Keeping up with the Joneses” is an idiom referring to the comparison to one’s neighbor as a benchmark for social class or the accumulation of material goods.
The phrase originated with the comic strip Keeping Up with the Joneses, created by Arthur R. “Pop” Momand in 1913. The strip ran until 1940 in The New York World and various other newspapers. The strip depicts the social climbing McGinis family, who struggle to “keep up” with their neighbors, the Joneses of the title.
James Raia, a syndicated columnist in Sacramento, California, publishes a free weekly automotive podcast and electronic newsletter. Sign-ups are available on his website, www.theweeklydriver.com. He can be reached via email: james@jamesraia.com.
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The Toyota Tundra hybrid mileage is a disappointment. The F150 gets better mileage all around.
Update; Toyota is expierecing problems with the 2022 Tundra with its Twin Turbo V6 engine. They buckled under the NO AUTHORITY EPA cafe standards and discontinued their Bulletproof V8 engine platform in the Tundra.
When will those knuckleheads at the EPA learn.