Westlake Ford shows the versatility of the F-150 and F-Series trucks old and new.
This week’s Throwback Thursday ad comes to us from the YouTube channel of Those Ford Guysand it features a regional commercial for the current F-150and Raptor. This spot isn’t as old as most of our Throwback Thursday features, but this video from Westlake Ford in Ohio showcases the modern pickups with a flashback at some of the toughest Ford trucks from the past.
The Modern Ford Truck
This commercial showcases the current Ford F-150 in a variety of trim levels, focusing on the Raptor. Like many F-Series commercials, it shows people using the trucks for daily tasks while showing the Raptor doing Raptor things, like racing through the woods, blasting through water and just generally being awesome. The commercial highlights the fact that the modern half-ton pickups can do it all, from the daily grind to weekend fun, as the F-Series has been engineered to do everything that an owner could want.
The commercial also relates childhood fun on a bicycle to the fun that can be hard with the Raptor, which can be a natural progression for a young truck lover who looks forward to flying through the local off-road park.
The Classic Work Horse
What makes this regional Ford truck commercial comes around five seconds into the video. Before really getting into the modern trucks, this ad quickly flashes through an array of classic Ford work trucks. The clip shows three big Ford work trucks from the past 50 years, finishing up this short segment of the video with the mighty Raptor, reminding us that while this truck is built for play, it has decades of hard work built into the engineering.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
