"Kia's getting a ute": The 2024 Kia Tasman ute advertisement joins 'Hey Charger' and Toyota HiLux 'Bugger' as one of the seven most iconic Australian car ads ever

Living in a meta universe all to itself, the advertising campaign for the 2024 Kia Tasman ute has proven quite the success in bringing awareness to Aussie HiLux and Ranger buyers while getting those in the industry talking. 

Car nuts get it but it’s the star-studded cast that appeals to almost anyone who’s watched a game of sport – to inform without alienating is one of the most complicated tricks for a 90-second commercial to pull off. 

Kia’s certainly not the only car company with stellar, memorable TV commercials. The Toyota HiLux, Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore and Valiant Charger (and more) have all been backed by fantastic campaigns over the years. Read on for a list of the CarsGuide office’s favourite Aussie car ads in no particular order.

Read More About Kia

2025 Kia Tasman: Game-changing dual cab ute breaks cover in unique camouflage wrap as next year's market showdown with Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Mitsubishi Triton draws closer Kia will be the number two brand in Australia very soon: How the Kia Tasman ute and new electric cars will see it overtake Mazda and Ford on the sales chart | Analysis Best Australian cars of all time

1 – Kia’s getting a ute, 2024

The genesis of this story: what a clever ad! It plays on collective consciousness with a fantastically Australian slant echoing what the yet-unseen ute promises. It’s the kind of recognition Kia needs if it’s going to sell 20,000 Tasmans each year. 

With everyone from Ash Barty and John Aloisi to Kerry O’Keeffe (secretly, we wish ‘Skull’ made the cut as the ute’s name, perhaps it could return for a hardcore Ranger Raptor rival?), Kia spent big to get stars in. 

In the first ad (released before the name was confirmed) there was almost no reference to the Tasman badge save for the slow pan at the end showing the Tasman Hotel. It’s a master stroke in creating suspense, with the follow-up commercial ad confirming the Australian-themed moniker. Still no picture of the ute, though. 

Whether Kia’s ad really ingratiates itself as a classic is something only time will tell. Initial signs are very promising, though. 

2 – Holden Kingswood RTS, 1977 / Ford Falcon 500 XC, 1978

When Holden’s Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS) was pitched against a period BMW by Modern Motor magazine it vanquished the Germans at their own road-holding game. RTS, marketing gimmick or not, was an advance that changed the way Aussies thought about their cars. 

As Contributor Byron Mathioudakis – who was in primary school in 1977 – put it: “This advert for Holden’s then-new HZ Kingswood is the line in the sand where we went from US to European tastes in handling and driveability - something that lives on today, where importers are compelled to retune their chassis to align with Aussie expectations.

“This all started right here with Radial Tuned Suspension in 1977.”

That wasn’t where the buck stopped. Ford hit back with its own campaign denouncing any real advantage from Holden’s RTS, having an XC Falcon 500 ‘prove a point’ by slaloming between great racing drivers – including Alan Moffat, Dick Johnson and more – at over 90km/h.  

3 – Toyota HiLux, Bugger, 1999 

Chances are you’ve seen this ad. It’s in all the lists of best Australian car commercials and there’s a reason: it’s awesome. 

There’s not much use in describing the ad – put together by Saatchi and Saatchi – due to its fantastic simplicity. Did it really help sell an already popular product? Who knows, but everyone remembers the HiLux bugger advert. 

It didn’t hurt that there were over 100 complaints lodged in New Zealand due to its use of ‘obscene language’ which led to the ad being banned between 4:00-7:30pm, though Toyota elected to run it after 8:30pm from April 1999. Funnily enough, the ban only held up over the ditch; Aussies were unbothered by ‘bugger’. 

Like many quintessentially Australian things – the Pavlova, Crowded House and Russell Crowe – the Bugger clip was born in New Zealand. 

4 – Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars, c. 1975

Another classic advertising adoption was Holden’s slogan in the mid ’70s: Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars. 

This was a total rip-off of GM’s “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet” tagline considered one of the greatest American automotive ads of all time.

Again, from contributor Byron who was around at the time: “People in Australia who remember the Holden version are still genuinely shocked that it was a Yank ad. Just like their beloved Holdens were often-rejected Chevy proposals right from the very beginning”. How prophetic. 

5 – Mitsubishi Magna, Shatter the Myth, 1985

Following the Sigma, which saved Chrysler Australia from certain bankruptcy, came another sales phenomenon from Mitsubishi, the Magna. 

Mitsubishi’s Australian re-engineered YF Galant became so much more than a 60mm longer sedan – the Magna would change the medium segment globally.

The claim was Mitsubishi’s powerful four-cylinder would ‘shatter the myth’ that a six-cylinder was the only suitable choice for an Australian family, with the Magna claiming more cabin space and better efficiency. 

The breakthrough metaphor is spelled out by the then-futuristic looking Magna shattering the glass silhouettes of its rivals in the Australian Outback. Epic stuff. 

6 – Say ‘Hi’ to Hyundai, 1998

Up until this point, the ads have been well produced, clean and stood the test of time... not so much the ‘Hi to Hyundai’ campaign.

This is how Hyundai’s export story begun, though. Like the Magna commercial, ‘hi to Hyundai’ is part of what gave the South Korean brand a start in Australia – and the UK, where a tongue-in-cheek correction campaign was issued in 2022 to correct the incorrect ‘hi-und-die’ pronunciation.

Whoever decided on this set was clearly watching too much (TV game show here) as it looks like the ‘Italian-designed’ Excel hatch’s next appointment is with the show’s lucky winner, rather than at a dealer with a $9990 sticker on the window. 

The jingle is so kitsch, the hair like something you’d see on Kath and Kim’s TV set. It's then glimmer in the eye of what Hyundai is today, a brand on the cutting edge of electric vehicle excellence.

7 – Hey Charger 1972-1978

Is there any more iconic Australian campaign than ‘Hey Charger’? We can’t think of one. It’s all about selling a lifestyle, the sort of larrikin behaviour only Australians in the 1970s could get away with and, in the Charger’s case, at a mighty affordable price.

Where Ford’s sporty GT-HOs were reserved for a special few, Valiant churned out Chargers from boggo basics to the revered ‘six-pack’ straight sixes that were famously faster than V8s. 

Directed by Fred Schepisi, later to become a film and television director, the two-fingered salute accompanying ‘Hey Charger' – a V for victory hand-sign – was backed up by the tagline: “the unbelievable can happen to you.” Look out for a young Geoffrey Rush behind the wheel! 

It swept the nation and is still a recognisable gesture for many Aussies today, even if they don’t understand the Charger’s significance. By the end of 1978, the Charger bowed out of Australia along with the advertising campaign. 

It was a viral success before anyone knew what that meant. ‘Hi to Hyundai’ stands as a cheap imitation next to Hey Charger, which remains the greatest series of automotive advertising clips in Australia to date, at least in our opinion.

Honourable mentions

There are more ads than brands and so many spectacular, lesser-known campaigns we’ve missed here. Some include the beautiful 2002 BA Falcon ad sound-tracked by New Order, Isuzu’s wildly-prolific ‘Go Your Own Way’ ads (thank you and sorry, Fleetwood Mac) and more. 

Overseas greats include the BMW E39 M5 land speed record (2002), the absurd 1986 Peugeot 205 GTi commercial and hilarious Old Lady VW campaign which was revamped for the sporty ID.4 and ID.5 GTX electric cars in 2023.

Have a favourite car commercial you don’t see here? Have your say in the comments section.