A new Subaru Canada campaign sees it presenting its latest offering with circus-like showmanship to build off of last year’s “True Urban Legend” campaign.

The latest spot in the brand’s “Behold the Wilderness” campaign sees a man in a tuxedo present a ferocious beast secured to a stage by chains, with the beast itself being the auto brand’s new 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness.

First launched on March 18, the campaign is designed to advertise the added ruggedness, capability and utility that comes with the Crosstrek being offered with Subaru’s wilderness trim for the first time. The campaign is an extension of the Crosstrek’s positioning as being versatile enough to travel around a city or to outdoor activities, with the added element of the new model being more “beastly” with more ruggedly capable features, says Zulu Alpha Kilo executive creative officer Dean Lee.

“We needed to find a way to have the Crosstrek Wilderness campaign be an extension of the Crosstrek main lineup but also be differentiated from it so that they felt distinct,” Lee says. “With the ‘True Urban Legend’ campaign already established, we built upon it to tell the story of a brand new legend found in the wilderness.”

Subaru director of marketing and brand management Gary Sappleton says the new campaign is designed to position the Crosstrek Wilderness as one of the most rugged subcompact SUVs in its class. He adds that Subaru sees its target audience for this campaign as “fun, urban professionals” who live in cities but want the flexibility to get away to the outdoors on weekends.

“Crosstrek Wilderness is perfectly sized for life in the city, but when it ventures outside of the city limits it turns into a ruggedly capable beast,” Sappleton says. 

The work extends last year’s “True Urban Legend” campaign for the Crosstrek lineup, and continues its “Welcome to Uncommon” brand platform. The creative was developed in partnership with Subaru’s AOR Zulu Alpha Kilo, as a collaborative effort between the agency’s Toronto and Vancouver offices. OMD offered media support, while Rinaldi provided a French-language adaptation of the ad.

Subaru Canada’s new campaign is running on TV, OOH, online video and social media. The brand says it expects the spot to run multiple times throughout this year.