As Automakers Pull Back, Toyota Bets on Emotion This Super Bowl

Automakers have steadily pulled back from the Super Bowl spotlight over the past decade. According to iSpot, during last year’s game, auto brands accounted for just 7% of total ad minutes — down sharply from 40% in 2012. Still, the category isn’t disappearing entirely. For Super Bowl LX, a handful of brands including Toyota, Volkswagen and Cadillac are jumping back into the Big Game conversation.

Toyota’s entry stands out for what it leaves out. Instead of harnessing humor or celebrity cameos (as so many Super Bowl ads do these days), the brand leans into a quiet, emotional story about family and continuity. 

The commercial shows a young boy getting into a Toyota RAV4 and his grandfather lovingly fastening his “superhero belt.” Fast-forward years and the dynamic has flipped: The boy, now grown, is driving his own 2026 RAV4 and gently teases his grandfather to buckle up using the same phrase, bringing the story full circle and highlighting a shared memory that has endured over the years. 

That emotional approach appears to be resonating. Per iSpot’s Creative Assessment, 21% of surveyed viewers said the message was the “single best thing” about the ad, while “heartfelt” and “wholesome” were two of the top emotions/reactions. One female viewer summed it up simply: “I thought it was incredibly wholesome and made me tear up a little bit. We need more commercials like this in the world.”

The strong sentiment is translating into performance, too. The spot ranks fourth overall for likeability among Super Bowl LX teasers and pre-releases, and has a 56% positive purchase intent, second only to the Pepsi Zero Sugar Super Bowl ad at 61%. (Positive purchase intent is a measure of the extent to which a given commercial increased viewer interest in buying a product or service.)