GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP) — A central Kentucky Toyota manufacturing plant will get a moment in the Super Bowl spotlight when it is featured in a 60-second ad scheduled to run during the pregame show.
The commercial opens with scenes of the state's bluegrass countryside covered by an early morning fog. As a soundtrack of piano and strings plays, the Scott County plant in Georgetown comes into focus with a voiceover by 15-year Toyota veteran Sean Cooley.
The ad is designed to promote the newest Toyota Camry and marks the company's first foray into Super Bowl advertising in three years.
Along with scenes of life in central Kentucky, the ad shows workers at various stages of the production process and touts Toyota's dedication to quality, a perception that took a major hit in recent years with a spate of recalls.
Cooley put 250 miles on his 1997 Camry doing the filming, which took 21 hours. Those miles were added to the more than 400,000 he already had on the car.
"The reason it has so many miles is it hasn't given me any trouble," he said. "It has been very cheap to run. I didn't put an alternator on it until 300,000 miles and starter until it was at 350,000 miles."
Cooley told the Lexington Herald-Leader that Toyota's ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, drove around Franklin and Shelby counties "just looking for places that had character" (https://bit.ly/w6W5lH ).
The ad is scheduled to air between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. EST Sunday on NBC.
The commercial had been edited and completed when the decision came back from the advertising team that Cooley's commanding voice should handle the voiceover, which originally was to be done by an actor.
"It didn't really strike me as what a big deal this was until I saw the commercial the first time and thought, 'Man, this is really an honor to be chosen to do this,'" Cooley said.
The advertisements have the plant abuzz, said spokesman Rick Hesterberg.
"We're all excited about it," he said. "It's no doubt the highest visibility our plant has received in an advertisement or commercial nationally."