You Sleep When You Die

Take a look at a recent Nissan spot, one that I was particularly proud of. It uses gentle humor to hit two powerful “hot button” issues: the rising gas prices we are all facing these days … and the Nissan line’s impressive record of fuel economy.

This is not a tough question. The answer is false. False promises. False advertising. False prospects for the future. False information so people will continue to give Toyota the benefit of the doubt and time to fix the problem. Maybe at first, but not now. Not as problems continue to mount. Still think the majority of consumers believe the load of shit that Toyota is shoveling? Then how do you explain the fact that Toyota was the only major manufacturer last month that suffered a decline? Every other major manufacturer was up for the month of February: GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Mazda, Hyundai, BMW, Subaru, KIA, Jaguar and Porsche. You get the picture: everyone beat Toyota!

Floor mat.
Accelerator.
Brakes.

What else is left?? How can so many things be wrong with Toyota’s vehicles? Come on Toyota: you built your brand on dependability and reliability. When did you throw it out the f#%$-ing window? I am shocked and appalled that Toyota – the stellar manufacturer that it is – currently has more than 5 million vehicles on recall for defective floor mats, 2.3 million of its top-selling models on recall for unintended acceleration, and now the Prius on recall for faulty brakes – who knows how many cars that will affect?!

Toyota only has one chance to make this right.

Toyota announced yesterday that they are recalling 2.3 million vehicles. The recall affects eight Toyota brands. As if that weren’t catastrophic enough, the automaker has also completely shut down the assembly line for these eight vehicles.

I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years in the automotive ad business. Check out my column in Ad Age to find out what Toyota must do immediately to fix the situation…before it’s too late.

Within the past couple of weeks, GM announced that it will start hearing pitches for select Chevrolet assignments and for Cadillac’s national and regional dealer accounts. Not long before that, VW announced that it was parting ways with Crispin after four years. Should we chalk up this rampant changing of the guard to tough economic times?

Absolutely not.