Whether they’re little city cars or big commercial vehicles, ads always show cars in the brightest, newest, shiniest mint condition. Not in AMV BBDO’s ad for the Ford Pro 2023 Ranger pickup truck.

Go Break It In turns automotive advertising upside down (and grabs attention) by showing the car much like a pair of jeans – it needs to be broken in to feel just right. Of course, the 60-second spot shows a new owner driving back and forth power a pile of rubble, driving deliberately into a big pool of water and standing on the car to load it, also shows that the car can take the rough treatment  to which an average work car is subjected.

The campaign film is running in long and short formats for TV, VOD, YouTube and social media, supported by digital and social ads, digital OOH, and print. 

Richard Beard, marketing and communications manager at Ford Pro, stated, “Ranger is an iconic vehicle within the European pickup landscape, with a loyal customer base who value what the product brings to both their work and personal lives. This campaign shows a brief glimpse of just some of the arduous tasks that owners might subject their Rangers to and the inevitable bond that builds between the customer and their vehicle.”

AMV BBDO creatives, David Westland and Jeremy Tribe, who wrote the campaign, added, “Our audience are the opposite of posers. They love Ranger for being tough and hard-wearing, like a battered pair of jeans. Ford were fully on board with us and the director Marcus Söderlund launching their brand-new model by scratching it, scraping it and generally giving it a real beating.”

The film was directed by Marcus Söderlund at Academy Films and was shot on location in Slovenia in October 2022. The campaign’s print and digital out of home feature images shot by photographer Sebastien Staub. The work will be running in over 20 markets over the next 12 months.

Credits:
Client: Ford Pro (Ranger)
General Manager, Europe, Ford Pro: Hans Schep
Director, Vehicles, Ford Pro: Brendan Lyne
Marketing and Communications Manager, Ford Pro: Richard Beard
Brand Content Manager, Ford Pro: Pushi Jaswant

Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
CCOs: Nadja Lossgott & Nicholas Hulley
ECD: Martin Loraine
Creative Team: David Westland & Jeremy Tribe
Strategy: Stephen Wallace
Account Team: Tom Shattock, Kate Harris, Giselle Tooth & Richard Emanuel
Film Producer: Rory Elms
Art Producer: Kirstie Johnstone
Project Manager: Vaishali Vaghela

Production Company: Academy Films
Director: Marcus Söderlund
EP: Medb Riordan
Producer: Ash Lockmun
Sound Design: Parv Thind

Sound Studio: Wave
Executive Producer: Eleanor Brandwood
Music Supervision: Eclectic

Post-Production: Nineteen Twenty
Producer: Chee Yen Wang
Editor: Thomas Grove Carter
Producer: Noreen Khan

Photographer: Sebastian Staub
Photography Agent & Production:  Staub Studios Gmbh

Media agency:  Mindshare
Activation Agency: VMLY&R
Social & Digital Agency: RAPP
Senior Project Manager: Rosie Atherfold
Motion Design Lead: Rob Dewell
Creative (Digital): Ruby Randall Cutler
Copywriter (Digital): Lily Barclay
Senior Creative Artworker: Steve Hopkins
Senior Designer: Ian Mills