Five SE state Toyota dealers have pulled their commercials off of their local ABC TV affiliates in response to the coverage of the Toyota safety issues by ABC News' investigative reporter Brian Ross. The ad agency represents 173 dealers and it advised ABC stations last week that the ad shift was due in large part to the "excessive stories on the Toyota safety issues". The agency reports that the same dealers made alternative commercial time buys to non-ABC affiliates in the same coverage markets. The ad shift was made last week according to the VP of 22Squared, the Atlanta ad agency in charge of the ad buys. Marcia Owens-Reder indicates that she tried to talk the dealers out of the move; however it was ultimately their decision and she sent an e-mail to the effected stations last week. Reder said she "tried" to talk the dealers out of the move. "We have counseled the client on the pros and cons of this, and ultimately it was their decision to make," read an e-mail sent to the stations from the agency last week. The Southeast Toyota represents dealers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. According to its website, Southeast Toyota dealers sell 20 percent of all Toyotas sold in the United States.
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM * GIBSON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Ltd.
Central Virginia
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Capitalism at its finest - if you don't like what a network is doing - or reporting - we don't have to advertise and make them money - good for Toyota!
I agree * this was short sighted by ABC to overplay this story. I think Toyota has done the resposible thing and the government's treatment of their CEO was unforgivable....I may have to buy MORE stock!!!
They could have just put a hold on the commercials since they had put a hold on selling those 2010 cars, and sales were down anyway due to the already bad publicity.
One could argue that those Toyota dealers are attempting to punish ABC for reporting the unflattering truth. This is a real safety issue.
<----Toyota owner
Most cars have safety issues at some point. I find the timing of this attack by obama to be more then a little questionable.
I think it is a response to the dealers not liking that they weren't getting glowing coverage... like the White House not liking the coverage from Fox News and tryingt o freeze them out as punishment. The White House lost, and Toyota will lose that fight in the long run as well.
I disagree * I think it was the dealers voting with their pocketbooks * kudos for them for pulling the ads...they got the coverage * just elsewhere on other stations
While all this is going on, Ford has a brake recall and I only saw one artlcle about it. Since Toyota is making at least some of the cars in America, it would be logical to assume that the parts are possibly from Amercia also. So the coverage of ABC has been over the top, and it deserves the response from the company.
Let's see how much the gas explosion in the Northeast is covered. That would be a "Green Job" issue. i believe that more people have died from that than from the failures at Toyota.
....more people have been murdered in LA county during the same period as were killed in Iraq....A Toyota will win the Daytona 500 * Kyle Busch or Denny Hamlin!!!
Toyota is free to do what it wants with its advertising budget. ABC is free to do what it wants with the story. There may be fallout from either of their actions. Looks like some fallout.
Wallace,
It's unfortunate what Toyota is experiencing; some people with vested interests are over playing it though.
I think there is a issue of the American auto industry has been in such disarray that the current administration has a vested interest in keeping Toyota's misfortunes in the public eye.....
Our current administration has a lot at stake with their bail out of our industry and they want Toyota to appear less favorable * 12% of cars bought during the Cash for Clunkers were supposedly Toyotas!!!
My Lexus was born in Canada and it is FINE!!!
You have to give Toyota one for trying to be responsible. I hope they go all the way and investigate the related accidents truthfully.
The best handling of a problem like this I've seen is the Maple Leaf Foods campaign. They were up front, took responsibility, kept the public informed and fixed the problem.
The Administration needs to back off of this situation and let the marketplace handle the situation....GM, Ford and Dodge never stopped selling autos during recalls
Wallace, there is one primary reason that Toyota stopped manufacturing and selling cars... they didn't know what the problem was and they knew every single car that left the lot would have to come back. It wasn't about the customer experience, it was about having to do the work on the cars on the manufacturing line again...
Also, this problem was reported to the NHTSA in 2007 by Allstate. Toyota swept the issue under the rug until someone died. Of course, Nissan and several other makers have tuned the software on their cars to cut the throttle when the brakes are applied. Toyota decided not to program the on-board computers this way...
And Kurt will finish ahead of little brother Kyle...
;^ )