Toad Croaks It In Shocking Aussie Ad

Cane toads do not seem like the most obvious of brand ambassadors. They aren't the cutest of creatures - they are cold-blooded, scaly and bug-eyed. In fact, even if you were brave enough to cuddle one, you couldn't - the critters ooze a toxic slime.

However, give them names like Ralphie and Les, and run them over and you have an online hit on your hands.

That's just what Ford did in its latest ad campaign.  The commercial sees the pair sat in the road talking about life as a toad.

Ralphie teaches Les about their toxic secretions, which Les has been eating. The poisons turn Les into a hallucinating romantic, who decides everything is lovely, especially the "pair of shooting stars" heading their way.

Ralphie quickly realises the 'shooting stars' are actually a car's headlights and they should get out ot the road. However, there is no rush, the car sounds like a four cylinder, Ralphie explains, which means the pair have plenty of time before the under-powered vehicle reaches them. Big mistake.

Busy explaining this to Les for the second time, Ralphie is hit by the car and squelched to a gooey death. 

An innards-covered Les traumatically repeats his friend's name as the ad explains. You see Ford's Falcon EcoBoost delivers six cylinder performance from a four cylinder engine, meaning the car is a lot faster than Ralphie thought.

The toad-terminating ad, by JWT Melbourne, has pulled in over 80,000 views and nearly 3,000 shares since it was launched a week ago. The amphibian annihilation has become a cult hit online, appearing in blogs and articles.

The dim-witted, slow-moving toads are seen as a pest species in Australia, making them perfect stars for this ad, as most Aussies hate them. Australians wouldn't allow a cute koala or a Skippy-esque wallaby to be run over, but mangling a cane toad is fine.

Sure, the death of a toad will be sure to get some hopping mad, but the ad's execution makes its humour unavoidable.

This could be a massive smash, even if there are some bumps along the road.

Comments

[francis]

Pretty happy about this! How is this not higher in the charts???