• by Phyllis Fine , August 20, 2018

“We Dig Dirt” says KIOTI Tractor in its latest ad campaign — and the company isn’t kidding.

In two different spots, KiOTI turns a vice — being dirty — into a virtue.

One ad reframes “the phrase ‘we’re going to treat you like dirt’ to now reflect the highest form of respect,” according to Peter Dong-Kyun Kim, president and CEO of Daedong-USA, Inc., KIOTI Tractor Division, in a company statement.

The commercial equates dirt with the satisfaction of being outside working the land, featuring shots of a KIOTI tractor driving down furrowed fields and, yes, digging dirt. The voiceover ending states the benefits of being muddy: “We’re honored to find it under our fingernails. Lucky to be caked in it at day’s end. And we count our blessings every time we’re able to return to it…”

A second ad,  “Dirty Work,” opens with another tractor doing its job, as the voiceover compares KIOTI vehicles to those “with bigger names. Longer histories. More popular hats. Cute toy lines.” It ends, “So we’ll let the others keep their squeaky-clean images. And we'll focus on what really matters. KIOTI. We dig dirt.”

The Wendell, N.C.-based KIOTI  “aimed to create something to not only catch attention and stand out, but speak to the farmers, hobby farmers, tradesmen and women who actually live this life,” the company notes.

The campaign, by Raleigh-based creative agency Baldwin&, will roll out in TV, print, social media, and banner ads across digital properties.

“Showing perfectly groomed models driving squeaky clean machines would have been a miss,”  stated Russell Dodson, executive creative director at Baldwin&. “Our clients at KIOTI agreed that the best way to show our audience that KIOTI ‘gets it’ was to express our love for that ‘brown gold’ that all the others wipe off before the camera starts rolling.”