Has anyone seen those Toyotathon phenomenon TV commercials for Toyota’s latest campaign? They feature individuals that deliberately get rid of their old cars by destroying them in a variety of ways in order to have an excuse to shop the Toyotathon sale. It just happens that I produced a series of commercials with the exact same premise for a local auto dealer in Seattle.

When we ran the spots, the dealer received tons of complaint calls from people upset that we were encouraging insurance fraud. It was insane. We even put a small disclaimer that said the dealer was in no way condoning insurance fraud, but it still wouldn’t stop. And that wasn’t all. One spot featured a young lady telling her father that she had wrecked the car only to have the father jump for joy. Some jackass called and complained that his daughter had just had a car accident (she didn’t get seriously hurt) and we were somehow being insensitive by running the ad. Finally, an ad depicting a young woman leaving her boyfriend (and stealing HIS car) we were told by the representative of an irate women’s group, was somehow encouraging the battering of women. Ultimately, the owner of the dealership stepped in front of the management team that hired us and cancelled the campaign despite the fact that it had created an almost twenty percent increase in sales.

I’m sorry I’ve gone off on a tangent here, but I think it’s interesting to point out the fact that national campaigns can get away with a lot more than local advertisers. I’ve come to the conclusion that it has a lot to do with the proximity to the customer. A hypersensitive unemployed nutjob with too much TV time on their hands can simply pick up the phone and call the owner of an advertising business and complain. Whereas the same jerk would never get past the automated one eight hundred line of a multinational corporation.

Anyway, I’d like to know what you guys think. I’ve posted a few links to some of the spots we made for you to judge for yourself. I could only find one of the Toyotathon spots to link, but just watch TV for five minutes and you’ll see them. Maybe I can sue em’ for copyright infringement, LOL. Thanks for helping me get that off my chest.

Toyotathon Click to Open Web Page

My Spots: Breakup Click to Open Web Page

Stolen Click to Open Web Page

Dad and Daughter Click to Open Web Page

Crusher Click to Open Web Page