Comments on: Toyota withdraws award for ‘sexist’ Yaris ad and launches internal review

By: Marketing disasters: Westpac’s monkey business tops 2009 list - mUmBRELLA

Marketing disasters: Westpac’s monkey business tops 2009 list - mUmBRELLA — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:35:06 +0000

[...] has now been pulled from the competition and Toyota is reviewing the process for “signing off any sort of information that goes into [...]

By: Qantas creates new role to drive online and social media opportunities - mUmBRELLA

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:09:15 +0000

[...] Toyota is currently reviewing its internal processes related to “signing off any sort of information that goes into the public domain which [...]

By: Chris K

Chris K — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:57:46 +0000

Has anyone bought a domain name recently from Godaddy.com ?

Sexist definitely. Wrong probably. Does it work? They’re not #1 for any other reason.

Maybe the ad agency in question can get some work with them and get featured on the superbowl. Recent work ‘too hot for tv’ :

http://www.godaddy.com/Shared/.....d=speeding

Whether it works for Toyota or not is another question.

By: David

David — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:14:53 +0000

Yeah like Toyota, Tiger’s got balls too (and there’s a few who could verify this). You could even say he wen’t viral and if he’s a brand he just managed most recognition he’s ever had (as eye balls).

But what effect does it have on the brand? Is it good / bad for sales? Who knows?

By: juicer

juicer — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:04:58 +0000

Another day and still we’re talking about Yaris
i didn’t approve of the AD and question Ive been asking is what were the quality of entrants like?Perhaps there was little to choose from?

In any respect Toyota has worked it well and the power of social media has ensured that they have received more brand recognition for Yaris than they probably would have otherwise.

AHA – perhaps that was their plan ?

By: bearit

bearit — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:41:13 +0000

Hey S&S I think it’s great and I’m not even Gen Y. It’s funny (aparently I’m one of the rare people who have a sense of humour); it’s definitely viral (I’ve sent it to at least 30 friends who I think can take a joke) and yup it sure has talkability. Glad Toyota had the balls to actually run with something that wasn’t just BLAH.

By: david

david — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:51:04 +0000

Not a lot of target market consideration (I’m guessing young fairly well-off women?) – a hard sell to say the least getting men thinking a Yaris is “cool” apart from the male miniature dog owning demographic.

Who believes Toyota had no say in the selection process? Could it boil down to a lack of quality entrants? The criteria might have been to get as closest to a TVC as possible with some spice added for the “could go viral” rubber stamp. Pity the spice seemed to offend the target market!

Perhaps Toyota could do a Tiger apology:

“We have let our target market down and we regret those transgressions with all of our hearts. We have not been true to our values and the behavior our target market deserves. We are not without faults and we are far short of perfect. We are dealing with our behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with our target market. Those feelings should be shared by us alone…”

Hmmm didn’t seem to work for Tiger though!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:43:09 +0000

Poor Mike Breen, Oh what a feeling!

By: DD

DD — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:27:58 +0000

What astounds me is that Saatchi’s managed to come up with the absolute weakest idea out of the 5 and then they got and mess it up! Double fail if you ask me and something tells me they won’t be working with Toyota next year.

By: Long time listener, first time caller

Long time listener, first time caller — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:45:30 +0000

Hmmm, I was born in 1981. Does this make me a Gen Y? If so, I think that I need to step up to all the haters out there, who continue to bang on the anti-Gen Y tin cup. Cast not the first stone peeps…

By: Rachael Lonergan

Rachael Lonergan — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:35:29 +0000

@Hamish

I think most of the communications planning world has moved on from volume of impressions / exposure / TARPs etc being how a campaign’s success is judged. All those measures only help you understand how many eyeballs saw your message and the real estate value of the exposure.

Far more important is how the communications impacted on the business objectives, whatever they might be. I’m fairly certain Toyota wasn’t hoping for this kind of exposure when they launched their Social Media pitch comp.

By: Omar

Omar — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:35:28 +0000

I say we are becoming too civilised.
I bet the people who are so negative about this are not getting any. And I dont mean to be spitful. I am just curious about this statistic.

Anyhow, the ad fails in my opinion anyway… I fail to remember anything about the car…far less that it was safe…which was supposed to be the point…. Sell the cars safety point…. the idea was cool i must admit… but it was not intune with the times… the word acceptability score was very low..too many distractign words. a bit more tweaking and a bit more focus on the car…would have achieved a great job.

this ad was like walking in to the porn shop and asking for sex.

what you really want is to supermarket…smile….and walk out with a date …smile some more…

By: The Accountant

The Accountant — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:09:06 +0000

Good point Hamish, and if the winner of the pitch was based on completely fucking up they would also win.

By: Hamish

Hamish — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:56:17 +0000

Lets put this in context … Jan 1st … Yaris “Clean Getaways” forgotten and the next ‘disaster’ campaign has been revealed that we are all following / commenting on.

What this does show is the true power of Social Media … we just need to harness it in a way that doesn’t do damage to the brands we are working with.

If the winner of the pitch was marked on viral wom / exposure. Saatchi WIN. Sorry for all those who are offended though its the truth.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:55:00 +0000

@In conclusion:

Surely almost everyone involved at any kind of senior level in the production of the video would likely not have been Gen-Y?