Filed under: Cars, Crap Campaigns In History, Insight, Planning, Unplanned
Late last year I wrote a post about the horrendous advertising Toyota are doing for their Camry in the US.
I talked about how it was attempting to be deep and meaningful, only to be undermined by a crap execution, especially when it’s for a model of car that is renowned for its sensibleness. I don’t mean that in a negative sense … but from the perspective that it’s a solid, reliable automobile and trying to ‘sex it up’ ends up alienating rather than inspiring.
Well, as you can see from the pic above, Toyota don’t give a shit about what I say [and who can blame them] because it appears they’re persevering with this car crash of communication.
What is it with Toyota ads and balloons?
Is it because they are both full of hot air?
And why have the owners seemingly happy to be walking towards a balloon that looks like it’s fallen from the sky?
Probably for the same reason they’ve walked off and – judging by the lit instrument panel – left their keys in their car with the engine running.
Who are these people?
I’ll tell you who they are, they’re bloody idiots.
Bloody idiots with a sexual fetish for hot air ballooning.
And what is it with that headline?
“It’s The Stops That Inspire Us To Go”.
What?
WHAT???
Apart from it being some z-grade Yoda bollocks, the fact is you can see the cars GPS is on so the happy-go-lucky couple featured in the ad aren’t some spontaneous couple, going wherever life takes them, they’re a couple of balloon groupies who planned … PLANNED … their trip.
In fact I’d go one step further.
They’re a couple of balloon groupies who chose to drive to a remote part of nowheresville to pollute the clean air with their bloody car fumes.
I wanted to say this is a perfect example of why focus groups are dangerous, but the thing is, I don’t think even a research model designed to ensure communication is bland and meaningless could have approved this.
But then, if not them, who … because the alternative is even more scary.
What’s going on Toyota?
When you say ‘Let’s Go Places’, do you mean ‘go to the bottom of the advertising barrel’?
Seriously, you’re better than this.
Your agency is better than this.
And humanity certainly is better than this.
Sort it out, because this cannot be working for you.
Toyota Corolla: For balloon fetish, air polluting fools who leave their keys in the car. With the engine running.
Filed under: Cars, Comment, Crap Campaigns In History, Insight, Planning, Unplanned
I like Toyota.
Well, I used to like them.
When they had the Celica, MR2 and of course, the Supra.
It helped hide the fact they also made cars that made beige Volvo’s look exciting.
Like the Toyota Corolla.
Sure, it’s a perfectly good car.
Practical. Drives well. Strong reliability. Fair resale value.
So why the hell do they insist on trying to sex-it up?
I know buying a car is probably the second most expensive purchase you’ll ever make so you need to feel good about what you’re buying, but trying to make an accountancy conference feel like a Motley Crue aftershow party is always going to end up making you look a tool.
And yet so many car brands continue down this path.
Which gets me back to that Toyota Corolla ad.
OK, to be fair, they’re trying to be less rock star and more deep and philosophical, but it’s still bullshit isn’t it.
“Find who you have not yet become”
What? WHAT?
What’s that even mean?
Forget the rubbishness of that 3rd division Yoda statement, what about the fact they don’t see the irony of combining people lighting sky lanterns that float gently in the air with beauty and grace and calmness with a gas guzzling car that pollutes the air everywhere it goes?
And why the hell are they lighting sky lanterns?
And why did the owner of the Corolla park in the middle of the road?
What if all those lanterns land on the house at the top left of the picture and it catches fire?
How is the fire truck going to get there and save the occupants if the road is blocked by some selfish Toyota Corolla owner?
And they have the audacity to end the ad with the line, ‘Let’s Go Places’.
I’ll tell you which place you should go … to the local jail where you will probably meet the marketing team who asked for this contrived, passive piece of rubbish … which achieves the rare feat of alienating both the folks who choose a car as a reflection of their ego and the folks who want a car that offers quality and reliability rather than hype and hyperbole.
You know, the people who would actually find the boring reliability of a Corolla exciting.
Sometimes we try so hard to be different when just telling the truth is the most refreshing approach available to us.
Look, I love planning – not so keen on a bunch planners – but what we do and how we do it has a lot of [underrated] value.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUT, sometimes what we do is – let’s be honest – a bunch of bollocks.
We either do stuff to feed our own ego or do stuff that doesn’t take the brand conversation anywhere new … which not only buggers up our client and bores our audience, but feeds the level of hate many disciplines have for us.
And to be honest, I don’t blame them.
As much as it might be sensitive to say, sometimes the biggest insight is “there’s nothing new here”.
However that takes a lot of balls and courage to admit because essentially, you’re saying you can’t take something to a new place, and that is very hard for the ego to take.
But here’s the thing … it’s not that you COULDN’T come up with something, of course you could, the issue is – whether because of the client request, the category situation or the products overall parity – you couldn’t come up with something that would make a significant difference in the situation you find yourself in and when that happens, the best advice I can give is to give the task to a great creative or design team and sit back, knowing that the biggest contribution you’ve made, was getting the hell out of the way.
I say this because I saw this:
In a whole magazine of ads, these were the only ones that stood out.
AND I DON’T EVEN DRINK ALCOHOL.
Sure, they are just well designed images … sure they don’t say anything deep and meaningful about the brand … sure, they’re not exactly redefining the category … but you know what, maybe they don’t need to.
Maybe they just want to look fresh and fun and attractive so that the next time you’re in a bar or a club, you will ask for Stoli instead of the countless other vodka brands that try and claim to be anything other than a bloody alcoholic drink.
Of course, someone will now tell me a planner was involved in this account … and if they were, good on them, except I would love to know what they actually did given the only difference between this brand and countless others is the name, the design and the flavours.
Planning has a lot to offer and a lot to give … but if the work you do can’t – or won’t – elevate the brand and audience to creatively infectious and intriguing new places [even when they’re old situations], then all you’re really doing is ‘packaging the strategy’ rather than ‘creating the future; and the only people who benefit from that is the agency who will charge you out for essentially writing a bunch of powerpoint decks that no one will ever read.
Fuck, I hope no one in the creative team reads this.
Or my planning team.
Shiiiiiit.