The first time I saw this commercial I turned the channel and immediately informed my children that this kind of behavior is completely unacceptable. This child has the nerve to call his parents lame! I went to the Toyota channel on youtube to find out how to complain and saw that most of the comments posted there had the same sentiment. I also saw that this ad is only one of several offensive commercials featuring this character. In each commercial he obnoxiously refers to his parents as "dorks" or "lame" and sarcastically ridicules them. How dare Toyota portray a child showing such disrespect for his parents in a commercial for a product aimed at families!! Not cute.
I also submitted a formal complaint on Toyota's main website in the customer help/contact us section. Click this link if you would like to submit your own complaint. It will take about five minutes to set up an account and then you can leave your complaint. I selected "website" as my area of concern and also pointed out that I am a current owner. I'll get back to you if Toyota bothers to respond.
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I heard back from Toyota today. Their response follows: "Thank you for contacting Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
ReplyDeleteWe sincerely apologize if our 2011 Highlander commercial offended you in any way. It was certainly not our intention to do so.
Your feedback is appreciated as it is through communications such as yours that we become aware of our customers expectations and reactions. It also provides us with valuable insight when developing future advertising strategies.
If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us www.toyota.com/help/contactus.html.
Sincerely,
Eddie Campos
Toyota Customer Experience "
Hmm. Reading your post makes me realize how numb I've become to the underlying messages that get passed to us through these lovely little media packages. Thank you for the wake-up call!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. Thanks for stopping by the blog:)
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