Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Toyota Camry's target consumers: Clueless women and castrated men

Many women complain that their gender is unfairly characterized in commercials. But who's getting angry over the dumb, foolish men in these commercials? I am.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present the extremely damning Exhibit A:
Here we see a man driving a shiny red Toyota Camry and activating the navigation system that features a female's voice. With Bluetooth technology, he then calls his wife/girlfriend, who flips out upon hearing the voice of the "woman in the car" and the prospect of his heading to a hotel.

The proper ending to this commercial? The man shakes his head, then mutters, "That chick's crazy."

The actual ending? The man uses Bluetooth to call the local florist, presumably to apologize to Crazy Lady for... wait, why the hell should he be apologizing?

Hey, Jack! Grow a spine! All you had to do is explain that it was a voice navigation system. Now that you're buying flowers, you're not only apologizing for no reason and making all men look lame in the process, but also making yourself look guilty of what the stupid woman was alleging! Good work, buddy! Now you're going to be in even more trouble. Abort! Abort!

On top of this, Toyota renders the whole concept moot by issuing a disclaimer that says that the navigation system mutes itself during Bluetooth phone calls.

So let's review, in chronological order, who looks stupid in this commercial:

  • Women
  • Toyota
  • Men
Good work, ad agency!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Toyota: We dare you to buy a Ford!"

lanyard said...

UNLESS: the driving guy is cheating on his girlfo with the GPS robot-woman, in which case your outrage is unwarranted and your entire post falls apart.

"Toyota: Making you want to make out with robots since... whatever."

Chris Serico said...

Hmm... come to think of it, Lannie, that guy does look a little guilty when his wife calls him out on the GPS lady.

Perhaps, prior to this call, she had caught him making out with his dashboard. Then, indeed, my whole blog post is ruined.

Still, I'm going with the premise that Toyota wants to emasculate its male customers. It's easier for me to be angry that way.