Terry Crews isn’t in Muppets Most Wanted. In fact, this new Super Bowl ad for Toyota doesn’t make mention of the Muppets sequel, at all. And yet, seeing Crews interact with Kermit, Animal and the members of the Electric Mayhem band simultaneously makes me want to see the new Muppet movie, buy a Toyota, and possibly tune in to Brooklyn Nine-Nine. So, mission accomplished, Toyota marketing department.
The clip was shared on Toyota’s YouTube page, and features an unusually subdued Crews driving through the desert listening to classical music when he encounters the broken-down tour bus of Dr. Teeth and the crew. Normally when we see Crews, he looks like this!
So yeah, the Muppets spot is bizarre, but it has NOTHING on what Crews has done in the past.
We are getting an early look at a couple of Super Bowl ads, and I expect more of them to drop between now and Sunday. These are the secondary ads – not the footage from upcoming blockbusters, but the commercials that shrewdly use characters who have pending movies in ads to sell more product. Or, like this Matrix clip, the ads that tap into audience nostalgia to move product. It’s all about moving product. Cynical enough for you?
To the Muppets’ credit, they don’t push Most Wanted on us in this spot. So I’ll do them a favor and peddle the upcoming sequel. It will be in theaters on March 21. It brings Kermit, Miss Piggy and the whole gang back for an international adventure co-starring Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais and Ty Burrell. And a real trailer dropped for it recently, which we’ll happily share below:
