We hand it to the genius of Ford's marketing team back in 2002 to reach out to country music star Toby Keith as a national endorsement for their Ford F-Series, most specifically  the F-150, because well, country music, cowboys, red necks, beer, and trucks all go hand in hand.   Ford began touring with Toby in 2003.  

A big fan of Toby Keith myself, I attend his concerts annually.  The marketing starts right in the parking lot with a car and truck show of the most brilliant array of F-150's, 250's, 350's and even the almighty 450's ever seen.  I'll be the first to say they are great to tailgate with.  Not only will they transport your grill, chairs, tables, booze, and anything else you may need to throw one heck of a shindig, they double up as a lounge, a table and food prep area, and I've even seen a few games of beer pong played across the tops of two F-150s. 

As you walk into the concert venue, if you managed to miss any carefully placed truck adverts, don't worry, the entire concert starts with a 5 minute video short of Toby Keith and his gang raising hell, in those nifty Ford trucks.  The video then leads into a segue that launches the country legend straight into his concert on stage and the crowd goes crazy.  

But its not over yet, every video back drop for each song features either a ford mustang, a new Ford truck, or a nostalgic antique Ford vehicle.   In his hit song "American Ride", Ford makes no mistake which automaker he's referring to, which leads right into his next song, Made in America.  You'll take a ride in a Ford Mustang and race down the road net to an F150 truck during Whiskey Girl, and during one performance, you'll actually get a glimpse of what it looks like behind the steering wheel of a Ford car.   Even in songs that had nothing to do with cars, Ford still shoved in it's very clever product placement by creating Ford F150 neon signs to light up during "I Love This Bar".  With clearly genius and clever subliminal messaging the entire night, I found myself wanting to drive away in one of those nifty pickups and began looking for them as we left the concert.    To answer Keith's question, "Who's Your Daddy?"  Clearly the Ford F150.   To be quite honest, we're pretty surprised that Toby doesn't put the song Big 'Ol Truck back on the setlist.  But then again, it may just be too obvious.  

What are we going to expect from Ford's F-Series in the future?  A little less talk, and a lot more action.  Starting with their aluminum-bodied F-150, this truck lightens it's load by up to 700 lbs.  Now Ford has introduced two new engines to their 2015 line, however, "Hope on the Rocks" for a V8 goes out the window, for increased fuel economy and efficiency of some spiffy modified V6's.  Ford suggests that their light bodied 3.5 and 3.7-liter V6's punching out 283 hp and 302 hp respectively, will raise the bar for power, efficiency and performance of these efficient American Rides.  

In addition to the standard models, Ford is offering a 2.7-liter How-Do-You-Like-Me-Now Ecoboost V-6 with direct injection kicking out 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque, "shock'n y'all" with its ability to haul up to 2,250 lbs, and tow an 8,500 lb. trailer.  They make claims about outperforming the other "made in America" truck models like the Chevy Silverado 5.3-liter V8 and Ram's 1500 with it's 3.0-liter Ecodiesel V-6.  

Last but not least, there are two more drive trains for 2015 - a 3.5 liter V-6 Ecoboost and a 5.0-liter V-8, but Ford's sitting tight on these performance specs.   

Efficiency, power, performance for 2015… when you get behind the wheel of one of Ford's new F-Series the only thing you can do is exactly what Toby Keith tells you to… "Shut up and Hold on."