Friday Video (sort of): S40 Crown in Reborn Toyota campaign promising “Fun to Drive, Again”

Toyota has launched a mysterious website called Reborn-Toyota for the Japanese market. The sparse page has nothing but a slideshow depicting actor “Beat” Takeshi Kitano and singer Takuya Kimura dressed as 16th century daimyo warriors looking gangster behind the wheel of a piano black S40 Toyota Crown. UPDATE

The slides end on the words “Fun to Drive, Again” in big font splashed across the page and a timestamp of October 15, 20:59. What could this portend?

The phrase is a reference to the “Fun to Drive” tagline used in Toyota commercials from 1984-87, when Toyota had cars like the AE86, AW11 MR2 and MA71 Supra on tap. What’s more, Kitano and Kimura aren’t just rocking the duds of any feudal lords. They’re straight up Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Nobunaga Oda, who are credited for unifying Japan and are of roughly the same stature as that of George Washington in US history.

Is this a campaign to pave the way for the FT-86? The fourteenth-generation Crown, perhaps? All we know is we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for a Saturday Video on the morning of October 15 at 4:59:00 AM Pacific Time. See the site for yourself.

UPDATE: Looks like the site changed as promised. There’s now a great video of the Crown cruising the Shuto and a commercial depicting the reincarnation of Toyotomi and Oda in modern times.

The 15-second commercial:

Minute-long version:

Thanks to Toyotageek for the tip!

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7 Responses to Friday Video (sort of): S40 Crown in Reborn Toyota campaign promising “Fun to Drive, Again”

  1. Nigel says:

    Interesting, will keep an eye out for the video on Saturday.
    (Old to New).

  2. Kuroneko says:

    The final slide says, ‘On Television’. So, suggest it is the teaser to a new series of TV commercials. I am sure, of which, will shortly appear on YouTube.

    Regardless, I have a shoot scheduled for 21:00, so will be sure to have my One Seg keitai tuned in at 20:59! Arigato.

  3. Tj says:

    This appeared on youtube yesterday by the look of it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzlsxCKjXbs&feature=youtube_gdata

    Also quotes the time 20:59, which is only about 10mins away from me posting this….

  4. Tj says:

    Can confirm that the website http://www.reborn-toyota.jp/index1.html has changed.

    And there’s a pretty cool video of the Crown cruising the city streets. There’s a bit of text involved that seems to be to do with the car itself but I can’t read Japanese and you cant copy paste into a translator.
    Interesting none the less.

  5. toyotageek says:

    Well, the site went live overnight. Not sure where it is headed. Best part is the 3-plus minute ride in the Crown.

  6. Ben says:

    Haha, is it just us, the Crown otaku, who are excited about this? I loved the clip of the Crown cruising though Tokyo. I guess the “Reborn” part refers to Oda and Toyotomi’s reincarnation from the 1500s, not Toyota itself…

    Still pretty cool that their vehicle of choice is an S40 Crown. Seems appropriate, somehow.

    Thanks for the link, TJ!

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