- The 2022 Toyota Tundra and other historic Toyota trucks and SUVs appear in a fast-paced commercial.
- Along with the new Tundra, Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Trophy Truck and Marty McFly's 1985 Tacoma from Back to the Future are in the ad.
- The one-minute commercial debuts at halftime during Sunday Night Football on NBC.
Most people are familiar with Toyota, and many even recognize the full-size Tundra pickup, but not everyone knows about the Japanese automaker's rich history of race trucks and popular off-road SUVs. Well, Toyota gives viewers a glimpse of some of its greatest hits as well as showing off the new 2022 Tundra in a fast-paced, one-minute commercial that airs during halftime of Sunday Night Football on NBC.
The above clip opens with a camera shot speeding toward what appears to be a sandstorm in an unidentified desert. Lo and behold, said sandstorm turns out to be a portal into epic shots of Toyota trucks and SUVs from different eras doing cool truck stuff.
For example, the first thing we see is a 1984 4Runner SR5 sliding onto the scene with a posse of dirt bikes in pursuit. Then there's a rhino charging across a savanna alongside a 1960's Australian BJ45, also known as a "Troopy", which was short for Troop Carrier. The sandstorm turns to a snowstorm as a Voodoo Blue 2007 FJ Cruiser caked in white powder speeds across the screen.
In a cool transition from freezing cold to burning hot, the FJ becomes a 2017 Tundra SR5 driving through a fiery hellscape. However, this scene is a nod to the heroic nurse who used his personal truck to get patients to safety during the deadly "Camp Fire" in Paradise, California, that occurred back in 2018. Toyota rewarded the man by replacing his scorched Tundra with a brand-new TRD Pro.
Next, we see a 2012 Tundra CrewMax with the 5.7-liter V-8 towing the Endeavour space shuttle. Toyota says the spacecraft, dolly, and towing mechanisms weighed a combined 292,500 pounds when the Tundra pulled them a quarter-mile across a bridge as a publicity stunt back in 2012.
The following scene includes a pair of Toyota race trucks from the NASCAR Truck Series speeding down a racetrack. The shots wouldn't be out of place in a Fast & Furious film, complete with close-ups of a tach needle racing toward redline followed by an obligatory dramatic shift sequence.
Perhaps one of the most recognizable Toyota trucks appears in the next shot, as the black, jacked-up 1985 Tacoma that Marty McFly drove in Back to the Future appears in a cloud of dirt after executing an appropriately '80s J-turn. For those unfamiliar with said driving maneuver, just YouTube "Rockford Files J-turn", and thank us later.
The third- and second-to-last scenes see a 1991 Australian FJ75 with a prominent snorkel thundering over the ground with a mob of kangaroos in tow before Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's trophy truck of Baja 1000 fame launches off a sand dune in climactic fashion.
The ad closes with an all-new 2022 Tundra TRD Pro emerging from the sandstorm. Its distinctive and massive maw are front and center, with quick shots of its engraved tailgate and grille-mounted light bar before a wide shot of it outrunning the sandstorm to end the ad.
Click here for all the details on the new Tundra.
Eric Stafford’s automobile addiction began before he could walk, and it has fueled his passion to write news, reviews, and more for Car and Driver since 2016. His aspiration growing up was to become a millionaire with a Jay Leno–like car collection. Apparently, getting rich is harder than social-media influencers make it seem, so he avoided financial success entirely to become an automotive journalist and drive new cars for a living. After earning a journalism degree at Central Michigan University and working at a daily newspaper, the years of basically burning money on failed project cars and lemon-flavored jalopies finally paid off when Car and Driver hired him. His garage currently includes a 2010 Acura RDX, a manual '97 Chevy Camaro Z/28, and a '90 Honda CRX Si.
