indigo insights

Indigo Slate’s Rivian spec ad: Redefining the pickup truck story

By Heather Scott, Chief Strategy Officer

Like birdwatching, it’s easy to spot different kinds of pickup trucks on the road. There’s the old farm beater with feed in the back. The utility truck with furniture securely bundled together. The glittery lowrider. The hulking dually pulling a horse trailer. The off-roader with spare gas cans and a tent strapped to the roof. The lift-package, big-wheel, growling-motor, crude-sticker, paint-job-so-glossy-you-could-check-your-teeth-in-it vanity truck.

But no matter the flavor of truck, stereotypes and society dictate that there’s likely a man behind the wheel. The hard-working farmer. The handy dad. The bro who must be overcompensating for…something. Even truck commercials—usually voiced by gravely toned dudes—reinforce the trope. They show men pulling all kinds of recreational vehicles, ruling construction sites, and hauling enough hay to feed the whole herd. In the few commercials that do feature a female truck owner, the vehicle is often portrayed as a gift from her husband.

In both pop culture and marketing, trucks = men. Our Rivian spec ad aims to change all that.

Watch now on Vimeo

Women dig trucks

Women are into trucks. In the US, women represent about 12% of all truck owners, which, given the number of trucks registered, equates to around 4.68 million female truck owners.1 Certain brands report female truck ownership for specific makes as high as 19%.2 Over the past decade, women have represented the fastest growing segment of pickup truck buyers, having grown from single-digit percentages to where they are today.3 All that is to say that female truck owners are here to stay, and if current trends continue, they’ll represent an increasingly larger piece of the truck pie.

When we consider figures around electrical vehicle (EV) ownership, it starts to color in the opportunity that lies ahead. Women are already established as a significant segment of EV buyers, and they account for 41% of current owners in the US. But there are only about 100,000 electric trucks on the road today—a number that’s expected to increase. And as it does, women will be behind the wheel.

As EVs and gender stereotypes around trucks evolve, there’s a huge opportunity for companies like Rivian to not only attract a wider audience, but also tap into a new market, create equal opportunity, and change attitudes. Success hinges on representation and how we frame the “women and trucks” narrative.

Feeling empowered to explore

In her book, “The Second Sex,” noted philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir proposes that women are forced by society into the role of object (passenger, truck commercial ornament) rather than an autonomous subject of their own life—and that freedom holds the key to flipping that role. “The less she exercises her freedom,” de Beauvoir says, “to understand, to grasp, and discover the world around her, the less resources she will find within herself, the less she will dare to affirm herself as subject.”4 That is, equal opportunity and subjectivity—being an active and independent star of one’s own life—come down to feeling empowered to explore.

Empowerment. That’s exactly what we love about this ad and the driving force behind it. We wanted to create a story that lives and breathes freedom, guts, and exploration using a female lead and a Rivian truck as its main characters. Yes, it’s about harnessing an untapped female EV truck market, but it’s also about framing Rivian as a company that’s helping to defy traditional female expectations and usher in a new narrative.

That alone sets Rivian apart from other truck manufacturers, and when combined with the distinctive nature of its product, the possibilities extend far beyond the confines of a pickup truck’s bed.