toyota's new green promotion: using yesterday's innovation to create tomorrow's problems... today
toyota has launched a new ad campaign aimed at selling prii. the campaign involves a touring fleet of giant daisy statue installation art. the daisies do double duty as kitschy urban corporate art, and "recharge stations", where people can charge up their phones and other personal electronic devices thanks to the solar tiles mounted on the back of the flower, or simply sit and enjoy the free wifi while they recharge their own batteries (currently on the east coast, but headed westward soon). what does this have to do with selling hybrids?
nothing.
there's just something so beautiful about toyota's marketing plan. i think it has something to do with their ability to convince you that they are the best choice, despite the truth, by playing off of people's inborn desire to go with the trends while simultaneously craving the aplomb that comes with being a pioneer of new trends.
never mind that both GM, ford, and toyota themselves, had full electric vehicles years before the prius hybrid hit the scene. never mind that the first gen honda insight, as well as the older cr-x's have been doing the see-through trunk, abbreviated tear-drop rear end since years before toyota, and that the new insight is clearly a 4-door evolution of the original insight styling. never mind that the prius only averages 39mpg in most road tests that involve driving in the real world (or a reasonable facsimile thereof). never mind that toyota makes two of the biggest automobiles on the road (the tundra and sequoia), or that they have 17 cars in their lineup, 9 of which are trucks or SUVs, while big bad chevy has only 15, with 7 being trucks or SUVs.
never mind those facts, while toyota convinces you that the prius is the most advanced technology on the market, while they tell you that honda copied their styling, while they tell you that the prius gets 51/48 mpg, while they tell you that they are the small car captains of industry, while they tell you that they are the brand that is fighting for the little guy and his little car demands.
so how do they do it? how do they get the world to turn a blind eye to everything they are, and shout from the mountaintops everything they are not?
simple. catering to the simple minded.
the funny thing is, the simple minded may not be the ones your daddy told you about all those years. the simple minded, in this case, are the "hippies", or more accurately, the trustafarians, the neo-yuppies, and, occasionally, the new urban douchebags.
the simple fact about simple mindedness is this: there's a LOT of simple minded people out there; more than ever before, and they aren't just the people with the "cowboy up", "fuck dog, beware of owner", and "guns don't kill people, i kill people" bumper stickers. the sad truth is, the large majority of people driving around with "obama/biden", and "don't blame me, i voted for nader" stickers on their cars are just as simple minded as the rubes from any other demographic, they're just lucky enough to be en vogue these days.
so while chevy gets howie long to try and convince you that squeezing 1 more mpg out of their tahoe hybrid is a huge leap forward (and let's face it, it is for chevy), and ford gets the guy from dirty jobs to swing an F-150 around on a wrecking ball crane, by the trailer hitch, or dennis leary to yak about how real men need real-time integrated tow-assist, toyota gets a fleet of spandex clad interpretive dancers to pretend to be trees. or in the case of this newest ad blitz, not telling anyone (its not even on their website) that they are touring major cities throughout the US, installing temporary street art, using decades old technology, to create yet another quirky place to pamper your glowing rectangle obsession.
much like starbucks sucked in billions by convincing them of the "third place" concept (the idea that people have home to perfect their inner self, and work to perfect their outer citizen, but require a third place to allow the two to achieve harmony) toyota is taking it one step farther to convince you that, if the world just builds itself around you, you can be your own third place.
i think it's a great idea, this self contained third place. between giant daisy statues, and public outhouses (they are out there), all the world needs to do is provide some kind of public shower set up, and we can all live happy homeless.
the only problem with this as a way to sell toyotas, is that nothing about this ad campaign has anything to do with cars, nor does it display an ability to utilize innovative technology in a creative capacity. its just solar panels glued to the back of a giant daisy, which will no doubt, eventually end up in a scrap heap, or junk yard, or landfill, never biodegrading, or breaking down. just a whole garden of massive rusty flowers, like some sick alice in wonderland playset.
but if you look through the bullshit, if you see this ad campaign for what it is: a "look at me, look at me!" use of deco urban art, dated technology, and future trash, to pander to the "me first" crowd, you actually get a pretty good look at what toyota really is. in fact, a prius that uses a basic combustion engine paired with a electric motor, with a solar panel on the roof (only hooked to the AC. why?), that tells you in real-time what kind of mpg you are getting (as though, if your mpg dips too low, you will just pull over to the side of the road and walk the rest of the way) is a total sham.
the jetta TDI clean diesel loyal edition averages 36mpg in real world driving without hybrid assistance, the chevy volt runs on pure electric power for 40 miles before switching over to gas, texas instruments has been making calculators that run purely on solar panels since before i was born, and both full electric vehicles, and 60 mile batteries were available over a decade ago. an innovative use of cutting edge technology would be a car that runs on pure electric for over 60 miles, then switches to a hybrid that marries an electric engine to a clean diesel engine, and powers all electric gizmos and doodads in the cabin with the roof mounted solar panel (the roof of a car accommodates a pretty healthy sized solar panel). now that car would sell itself. of course, if you read this last paragraph thoroughly, you would already be saying to yourself, "an innovative use of cutting edge technology would be to bring back full electric cars, and make giant daisy statues that you can use to recharge said cars".
so if toyota is nothing more than the starbucks to chevy's dunkin' donuts, what's got us all so hot and bothered to ride the prius wave? what do lycra-clad people trees, and solar powered daisy shaped surge protectors have to do with making a decent car or saving the environment? what does toyota have that isn't offered in a better, cheaper, or more advanced version somewhere else? what makes toyota so special?
nothing.
that's the beauty of it.
