He who dies with the most Toyotas wins?

Nope.

I saw this Toyota Highlander commercial the other day and it really fired me up:



[update 1: video is mirrored here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzuK85t2jlE]

I've owned a couple used Toyotas and really have nothing exceptionally negative to say about their vehicles (except for that one time my hood flew off the car for no apparent reason while driving 50 mph), but their attitude in this commercial is really pitiful. Shit like this is why economically disadvantaged kids get beat up and made fun of. Whether it be about sneakers, jeans, electronics, or this case, to suggest that a child should feel shame for what vehicle his family owns is incredibly irresponsible and downright mean. What's really shameful is that they are actually paying another child to spew this elitist propaganda and essentially bully you, and anyone else with a car that's not up to their standards.

Now I recognize this specific commercial, "Scatter," is part of a larger campaign where the focus is "Lame Parents," and in a larger context, you can see elements of that in this commercial, but as a stand-alone, it's not enough to distract from the loudest message--station wagon kid=lame, Toyota kid=lucky. Personally, I thought flannel was cool again these days, but what do I know? I know that I'm able to read between the lines of their advertisement, and since they have a 12-year old acting as their pitchman, I'm pretty sure children will be reading between them too.

In conclusion, fuck you big time Toyota, and fuck you too Saatchi & Saatchi for putting the "Lame" campaign together for them. I'm so happy to see the negative response these videos are getting on YouTube. It will be even better when they realize what assholes they are and pull the commercials from the air.

[update 2: ToyotaUSA put the video in "private" hours later. read more in my follow-up post.]

[update 3: In a blatant attempt for page traffic, I just wanted to add the words "complaint" "offensive" and "sucks" ;) ]