Ask the ad team

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2007

Q: Are those Toyota Tundra ads -- with the truck out over a cliff or on a giant seesaw -- real or out of a computer?

A: They are the real thing -- not CGI (computer generated imagery). Look closely, and you can read "actual demonstration" on the screen. Toyota and its agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A., have sworn affidavits attesting to the authenticity of the stunts in the ads.

One of the first two ads in the series, which first appeared during the Super Bowl, showed the pickup accelerating to get through a gap in a wall before huge doors blocked the opening. Another showed the truck teetering on a giant seesaw -- towing 10,000 pounds up one side and braking to hold it back as the seesaw tips down on the other side. Stunt driver Chuck Picerni Jr. drove the...