Recently I laid out the formulaic outline of a typical car commercial. Toyota, to their credit, doesn't play that game. I just wish they had blazed a more forgivable path:
Mother: 0% APR financing -
The very first words are car commercial boilerplate. Hey, Toyota? The channel has already been changed.
Mother: - on a new Toyota Camry? Wow!
"Financing... on a... car? Unheard of! So, a dealership owner is willing to let me go into debt to charge more money for his car? Oh, my -- the generosity!"
Mother: And when you factor in the 31/mpg rating... well, we're saving a lot.
Seems like every ad I've blogged about recently falls victim to this obnoxious editorializing. SHOW, don't TELL, folks!
Mother: I guess my point is, what should we do with the extra money?
Donate it back to Toyota -- they need the cash to make non-painful commercials.
Kid 1: I'm likin' hedge funds.
Kid 2: What about... emerging markets?
It feels like the kids here even thought these lines were stupid. What, did somebody copy a couple of words down from the "Money" section of USA Today? "Hey, what's like a financial-y sounding word, like 'bank,' but fancier-sounding?"
Mother: (gasps) What's in that cereal?
Good point. This concept might work for a cereal commercial. Because it sure as hell isn't a car commercial.
Announcer: Toyota. A smart way to keep moving forward.
I guess this tagline ties in with the kids saying smart-sounding things. Sort of. Next time, though, Toyota, can you say something about your car that's at least superficially interesting? This commercial was disjointed and pointless.
P.S. Thanks for the financial advice! I just transferred all of my money into hedge funds. If you don't see me post again, it's because I'm partying down in Belize for the rest of my life. Suckers!!
1 comment:
What a tedious ad. First it's a shot of the car that might as well be static, and then it's a series of lame jokes that have nothing to do with cars. Completely lame, Toyota.
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