Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi launch 'Mud Dance' for HiLux

Toyota Australia and Saatchi & Saatchi Australia have launched 'Mud Dance', the latest work under the 'Don't Send a Ute to Do a HiLux Job' platform.

The campaign reworks the platform's off-road capability demonstration as a piece of entertainment and sees a convoy of utes slip, slide and twirl down a muddy hillside.

The hero film was directed by Nick Kelly of MOFA and is set to Mary Schneider's yodelling version of 'The Blue Danube'. It follows a group of campers trying to reach a campsite at the top of a hill. The other utes get drawn into a dance-off as they struggle with the mud, while the HiLux stays out of it and gets on with the job.

Vin Naidoo, Chief Marketing Officer at Toyota Australia, said: "For decades, Australians have trusted HiLux to get the job done in some of the toughest conditions imaginable.

"‘Mud Dance’ builds on that enduring Unbreakable spirit, following the success of ‘Don’t Send a Ute to Do a HiLux Job’ and bringing HiLux capability to life in a way that is unmistakably Toyota: confident, entertaining and grounded in a truth our customers already know."

Mandie van der Merwe, Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, said: "HiLux has one of Australia’s great advertising legacies, built by turning serious capability into populist entertainment.

"That legacy gives us both the permission and the responsibility to keep finding fresh, unexpected ways to demonstrate the quality, durability and reliability Australians have trusted for generations.

“Toyota understands that creativity is a genuine differentiator, and throwing a fleet of utes down a muddy hill to Mary Schneider’s yodelled rendition of ‘The Blue Danube’ is a wonderfully charming way to prove a serious product point. It’s bold, culturally distinctive and enormously entertaining.”

The campaign launched before the first bounce of the 2026 AFL Grand Final and will roll out nationally across television, OOH, digital and social.

READ MORE: Toyota tops YouGov’s best brand rankings in Australia for 2026

Credits

Client - Toyota Motor Corporation Australia
Anthony Nobile, Senior Manager, Marketing Operations
Kylie Graham, Manager, Communications – Commercial & Brand
Raffaele Laino, Senior Brand Specialist
Brooke Butkiewicz, Senior Brand Specialist
Isobel Kelly, Brand Specialist

Agency - Saatchi & Saatchi Australia
Mandie van der Merwe, Chief Creative Officer
Avish Gordhan, Chief Creative Officer
James Cowie, Executive Creative Director
Pierro Ruzzene, Executive Creative Director
Carlo Mazzarella, Creative Director
Michael Demosthenous, National Director of Production
Lauren Woods, Senior Integrated Producer
Ben Court, Chief Client Officer
Joe Heath, Executive Planning Director
Zoe Kypros, Group Business Director
Melanie Bunn, Senior Business Director
Aine Neenan, Senior Business Manager
Noah Thompson, Business Manager

Media - Spark Foundry Australia

TV PRODUCTION CREDITS
Production Company - MOFA
Nick Kelly, Director
Llew Griffiths, Managing Director / Executive Producer
Claire Perkins, Executive Producer
Stu Giles, Producer
James Brown, DOPkins, Executive Producer
Patrick Bennet, Production Design
Harry Dakanalis Pro Action Stunts, Stunt Co-ordination

Casting – Studio P Casting

Editorial-Offline – ARC Edit
Editor: Jack Hutchings 
Offline Executive Producer: Winnie O’Neil

Post-Production – Blockhead VFX
Matt Fezz, Colourist

Sound – Squeak E Clean
Ceri Davies, Executive Producer
Paul Le Couteur, Head of Sound

Music
Anton Trailer, Music Supervision

STILLS PRODUCTION CREDITS
Production Company - Photoplay
Michael Corridore, Photographer
Anna Cuthill / Brendan Lee, Producer
Prodigious, Retouching