Jul 27, 2010
Naive advertising from Toyota
Toyota’s “Swagger Wagon” campaign for the Sienna was brilliant. It spoke convincingly to young parents like myself who wish we were some version of hip, but need to tote our kiddos around instead. It did this by acknowledging that vans aren’t cool, but, hey, who cares!
And this made them sorta cool.
So I’m surprised by the ads that are in my feedreader every day.
This is the opposite of the genius of the Swagger Wagon. With the Sienna they set the bar low—Our vans aren’t cool…—and went from there. This was endearing.
Here, though, they’re assuming that I love my Toyota, which may be true, but, given human nature, they decrease my love for it by assuming my love. Nobody wants their love to be taken for granted. It’s off-putting at the very least.
Secondly, who on earth sits around waiting for an opportunity to share a story of how much they love their run-of-the-assembly-line sedan? That’s weird. People who have tales they can’t wait to tell about their cars don’t drive Toyotas…
…with some possible exceptions.
Perhaps the Sienna ads and these blog ads didn’t come from the same department, but if they did, I’d suggest promoting the Sienna ideators and restructuring so that the folks who came up with the blog ads can learn from them.
* * * * *
Maybe the juxtaposition of the question and the request for a story is coincidental. My response would be:
I love my Camry because it is spacious and despite being over 11 years old it still runs well.
My most interesting story is from 2002 or 2003, I was living in New York and had just gone to a performance of The Producers. It was later in the run so Nathan Lane was in it but Matthew Broderick wasn’t. It was still very fun and I’m glad I went. I remember that the show was very popular that I had to buy tickets like four months in advance. After the show, my friend who had gone with me and I walked over to the Toys’R'Us that’s in Times Square. For those of you who have never been, it’s a neat store – a three-story building with a ferris wheel in the middle.
We get there and we’re walking around and in the section right next to the Lego section we notice an area that’s been cordoned off and set up with a stool-like chair and a bunch of floor pillows. Looked around but there weren’t really any signs explaining what was going on so I asked a store employee (for the sake of the story let’s pretend that I asked Geoffrey himself). Geoffrey bent down and told me that Dr. Ruth Westheimer was doing a promotional reading of her new children’s book. “Wow,” I thought to myself, thanked Geoffrey for his help, fed him some leaves from an Acacia tree, and decided to stick around for the reading.
So we stood and listened to Dr. Ruth read her story to a bunch of kids that had materialized from out of nowhere (I think it was the understudy cast from the production of Annie that was playing down the street). I don’t remember what the story was about but it wasn’t about sex (the kids all kind of looked disappointed). Afterward, Dr. Ruth worked the line of spectators shaking hands and signing autographs. When it came to be my turn, I took the only piece of paper that I had which was my playbill from The Producers and bent down toward her (she is tiny!! I mean short, really short! Like Webster short!) and asked,
“Will you sign this: ‘To Kevin, my best friend, never stop dreaming! Love, Doctor Ruth’?”
She looked over at me, hesitated for just a second and in her thick German accent, coldly said,
“No.”
It was awesome.
Hilarious way to respond to the ad. Love.It.
Minni vans aren’t cool. That’s why I’m always bumpin’ Dre on my 4″ mids when I’m cruzin’ da ‘burbs.
But my Toyota’s cool because I bought it at Wal-mart and it fits in my pocket. I drive a Hiayundiayeee!