Toyota dealers in five southeast states have pulled their commercials off ABC TV local affiliates, complaining about the coverage of Toyota safety problems by ABC News and its chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross.
Executives decide whether to recall the Prius over software glitch.The ad agency representing the 173 dealers told ABC affiliates last week that the shift was due to "excessive stories on the Toyota issues." The dealers shifted their commercial time buys to non-ABC stations in the same markets, "as punishment for the reporting," according to an ABC station manager.
Anger over "excessive stories" on Safety Problems Leads Toyota Dealerships to Pull Ads from ABC Affiliates
Categories: TV Advertising
oh no they didnt!!!!
abc got glenn becked?
Wonder what their definition of “excessive stories” is? If these Toyoda ad buyers are mad now, they’re probably in for a long simmer given that new problems are cropping up regularly with Toyoda’s cars. The negative coverage is only going to get worse for the next month or so with all the investigations, from Congress to consumer commissions, being ramped up. What’s Toyoda going to do next, pull all US-based ads to punish the news media in general?
Well it’s Toyota, so even if they try to put a brake on their advertising, it might not work.
“Saftey”?
I’ve noticed that some reports are more “even-tempered” with comments like “very few Toyotas are having problems…” – while other nets have taken an almost Fox-news-esque “the sky is falling and you will die if you drive a Toyota (read: sensationalism). From personal experiences – a lot of baby boomers put their parents in Avalon’s and Camry’s because of the dependability Toyota offers. It’s those same parents that are hearing the “you’re going to die if you drive a Toyota” and without the “most cars are fine” part flooding dealerships with calls and stop by’s – even if the car is clearly not a recall problem. Where are the stories about how dealerships are busting their chops to keep all these people happy (read: great patience with very little help from the manufacturer).
And where’s the story about how more people are killed every day from being on a cell phone and driving – than Toyotas having actual recall-related problems? This story has lost it’s perspective.
But for the record, I think the Toyota dealers pulling their ads will do them more harm than good.
So, instead of bad Toyota PR on ABC interspersed with Toyota advertisements, they prefer bad Toyota PR on ABC interspersed with Ford/GM/Honda advertisements. Makes sense to me.
As between the Toyota cars they have been happily driving for years (look at Consumer Report rankings) and the legacy media/MSM they have been putting up with for *decades*, who do you think the bulk of Americans are going to really trust?
My stepfather is a Service manager for a local dealership, and has worked on some Toyota’s over the past few months.
He essentially says that people are blowing the problem way out of proportion and that you are more likely to get have a failure on some other part of your car than you are to have this particular issue crop up. The overall likelihood of the issue accelerator getting stuck is FAR lower than the likelihood of someone getting in a major accident for some other reason. Not saying that the issue is excusable, but the absurd coverage that it has been given is just as bad in the opposite direction…
I don’t blame Dealerships for taking their ads off ABC, because honestly ABC News is just fear-mongering and exaggerating the extent of the problem(as usual).
Good thing I’m not working for “Toyota”… I just noticed I blew the spelling of that company in my previous post.
I’ll just assume folks noticed that and were simply too polite to laugh on the post board (but laughed regardless at my goof off-board) over my errant typing. Sorry about that, Toyota…
Toyotas are generally saft.
The integrity of this site’s spelling is not “saft”
Let’s see, 19 deaths over the last decade from this Toyota problem vs. 30,000 deaths a year from people not wearing their seatbelts.
I’d say TV and the newspapers are turning something smallish into something gigantic.
Live by the ad, die by it. Who really f’ing cares about either Toyota or Disney except people who drive them. … Sinko sai, Mouse.
They were not so hard on Ford last time. Because its Japanese name (but made in USA)?
This is what you get when you get a state controled media and now a state owned auto manufacturer. Our mainstreet media is only doing the goverments bidding.
You bet this has been blown out of proportion. Where was the outrage about the recall notice I just received on my 1995 Ford Ranger. It was in regards to a switch that could short out and cause a fire in the engine compartment. I called the dealer imediately and was told they couldn’t take care of it for a couple of weeks. I sure felt safe driving it for those two weeks. By the way do the math, 1995 to 2010, that’s 15 years I drove this ticking time bomb.
This thing has agenda written all over it. By the way I don’t own a Toyota. I have in my life time had several GM autos. Because of problems too numerouse to list you couldn’t give me one of thier cars again, especially now that they’re owned by the government.
I’m sorry to have been so long winded. I do have a last question, where were these particular Toyotas and parts made?
WAC, ‘state controlled’ media in democratic countries has far more integrity and far less sensationalist crap than any network news (or news network). The BBC and Australia’s ABC are prime examples.
Ford got raked over the coals big time with the Explorer problems.
News shows, Late night comedians, newspapers, they were the butt of jokes for 6 months over that.
The arguement conflating advertising with sales opens a can of worms contaminating journalisms future. Editors of news, electronic or print, are becoming irrelevant to public information. They represent the profit motive and are responsible for the lack of understanding/ interest in important stories like, health care, economics, foreign relations, defense costs and the general decline of the United States in competition to the rest of the world.